A New World
by fantasy1290
Summary: What's it like finding out most of your life has all been just a dream and now you've finally died? Ask Ash who has to deal with that...and be reborn in a totally new world where Pokemon now look almost human but the same Pokemon powers. Oh, and he's now 16. Guess he aged after all. It's not going to be easy, but luckily he has some familiar faces to help him. Ash/eventual harem.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: So I make my very first foray into the world of Pokemon, something very different from my usual haunt in Harry Potter, but I've been wanting to do this story for so long that I finally just decided to go for it. For fans of my other stories, don't worry they'll still be frequently updated along with this one.

This story follows the coma theory only with a major twist. If you do not know what the coma theory is it is where Ash supposedly was put into a coma at the beginning of the series. What if Ash really did slip into a coma? Only everything he dreamed was actually a test by Arceus, one which he passed and allowed him to be sent to another world, this one where Pokemon are much more humanlike.

Chapter 1

Ash had finally done it! He'd become a pokemon master!

As he viewed his winning team of pokemon, there was a sense of pride and accomplishment at having managed it.

Then...

Everything disappeared and he suddenly found himself somewhere else entirely...definitely not the stadium he had just been in with a crowd of people surrounding him chanting his name.

Instead he was now inside a totally dark room, dark enough that he couldn't even see any light whatsoever.

Since it had been daytime before he was totally confused as to just what had happened or how he'd gotten here..

Just as he began to wonder just what was going on however a figure began to emerge.

As he looked closer, it appeared to be a beautiful woman with a very kind looking face and very long black hair that fell to her ankles and was arrayed in a shimmering white dress with a gold sash around her waist.

He was sure he'd never seen the woman before but she still somehow looked vaguely familiar.

"Hello Ash," The woman greeted him warmly.

The woman did not actually say it, but he could somehow still tell just what she was saying in his head.

"Hello," Ash replied back out loud, "what's going on?"

"I'm afraid you died," She admitted.

"I died?" Ash asked in shock and confusion, "but what are you talking about? I just became a Pokemon master. I can't have just died now. What I do die of a heart attack out of sheer happiness?"

Admittedly that would totally stink. To have spent so long striving towards something only to die right afterwards?"

"Ah, but can you remember how you won or even who you beat?" She pointed out.

As Ash tried to think however, he realized he just couldn't seem to remember.

How strange? He thought. Surely he should have been able to remember something that had only just taken place, especially something that memorable.

"It's because your entire Pokemon journey has actually been a dream," She explained, "your very first trip out after getting your first Pokemon you were struck by lightning, causing you to fall into a coma. There were plenty of attempts to revive you but all ended in failure. Eventually after 6 years your body finally gave out and you died."

Ash's mind was reeling, trying to take in this news.

"Are you seriously trying to tell me all that time has been just a very long complicated dream?" Ash asked her.

"Don't you think there were some major problems you never noticed during that time?" She pointed out, "first of all why you never aged? Considering the amount of adventures you went through, you would have expected to have aged at least a little."

That stumped him.

Come to think of it he hadn't ever aged, but he'd never really thought about it. If it was real life surely he would have noticed why he nor anyone else ever aged.

"That's just so messed up though," Ash argued, "why I did all that, and yet it was only just a very long dream."

"Oh don't worry, there will be plenty more things to come that will be even more messed up as you say," The woman claimed, having the nerve to grin.

Something struck him about what she said.

"Well if I'm dead, then how will there be anything more to come? Unless maybe you are referring to heaven," He pointed out.

"I could send you to heaven if you'd like," The woman offered.

"Does that mean that you're...god?" Ash asked her, somewhat nervously.

He'd always thought of god as male, but then again the metaphysical had never been something he'd concentrated too much on.

Especially with all the freaks out there worshiping Bellsprout or something.

"I prefer the name Arceus," She admitted.

"How could you be Arceus? Arceus is a pokemon," Ash replied.

"I can take many different forms," She said, "including that of a pokemon. I however chose to take a human form to speak with you. I'm sure that you noticed the resemblance."

"Yes," He admitted as he looked her over. She did seem to look very similar to Arceus. Her dress was the same color as Arceus had been and her gold sash was somewhat like the gold thing that had been around Arceus' middle.

"Now that that is setttled," Arceus observed, "I'd like to offer you a choice?"

"What's the choice?" Ash asked her warily, "if the choice is to return to earth and actually have the chance to live life, that's what I choose."

"Unfortunately that is not what I have in mind for you," Arceus told him, "you see I have a problem. Not from the world that you came from, but another one that I created."

"Wait a minute?" Ash asked in surprise, "are you saying there is more than one world?"

"Of course," Arceus said, "and I'm only responsible for the creation of only some of them. Another world that I created I made it very similar to the one you are from only where 95% of the world's population, including Pokemon are female, and Pokemon much more closely resemble human women than the Pokemon that you are used to. Due to the very high number of females, male trainers usually have harems of both Pokemon and regular girls."

"Yeah, that definitely sounds very different from the world I'm used to," Ash admitted.

"Yet eventually I foresaw a problem," She explained, "Pokemon of course have many different powers that humans do not have in any world. Humans are of course generally smarter, but that still wouldn't make up for that. Think about your Pikachu for example. Your Pikachu could easily shock you to death if she ever felt so inclined.

"Pikachu would never do that though," Ash pointed out.

"Exactly," She agreed, "fortunately Pokemon are naturally very docile. If they do attack it is usually because they feel threatened. There are of course exceptions, but for the most part this is true. In addition they lack the capability to kill. Otherwise they would cause so many accidental deaths using their powers that the human race would have become extinct long ago. Most importantly humans invented pokeballs that allowed them to capture them and make the Pokemon loyal to them. A Pokemon usually has a sense of pride and will try to fight and make you prove that you are worthy to be their trainer but if you do, then they will proudly serve you and aid you in any capacity you wish. As you know, they are generally quite happy to do so, even battle for you. In a different world this would seem cruel to force Pokemon to do this, but for them it is actually quite enjoyable and they don't actually feel any pain from getting hit by an attack, they just feel tired for awhile."

"Well I know that," Ash said, a bit proudly at his knowledge.

He'd never have battled with his pokemon if it felt like he was actually hurting them.

"However," Arceus continued, "in the world that I am referring to this is all still the case, but the problem is Pokemon are much more humanlike. They can talk and display intelligence beyond that of those in your own world which means they can actually be relied on to perform tasks without the constant guidance of their trainers and can really take care of themselves without the aid of humans. This distinction is what has caused over the years in this world to be able to have humans rely more and more upon pokemon for everything and less for humans. What good is a human building a house if say a Pokemon could do it 10 times faster? The Pokemon also would not need to be paid either. If a person can them simply go catch some Pokemon to go work for him, it will inevitably make the person lazy. Humans simply have become too reliant upon Pokemon there and that is what I hope to correct."

As Ash thought about it, he supposed that could be a problem.

"So how do you fix it then?" Ash asked her.

"Well first of all, not all humans are like that," Arceus explained, "some really do want to be able to do more, but are held back by the restrictions of being only human. If they could become like Pokemon, things would actually be a lot better for them. They would gain valuable powers and their lives would feel much more fulfilled. Being a Pokemon for a good trainer I can assure you is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

Exactly how to fix it though is more complicated. Not everyone is going to want to become Pokemon right away. They are rather used to having Pokemon do all the work while they do very little, but that is simply no way to live.

So after thinking about it for a long time, I decided that if I was going to change everyone in this world into Pokemon, I would have to do it gradually, and first give a way to show just how good the change will be for them by providing a trainer who truly and genuinely loves his Pokemon and is willing to sacrifice everything for them. Such a trainer could then be relied upon and trusted enough to have the ability to turn humans into Pokemon.

Unfortunately I was unable to find such a trainer in that world, as my requirements were rather strict. Finally I had to turn towards another world in hopes of finding a suitable candidate and I did.

That's why I selected you.

"Me?" Ash asked in alarm, "why me?"

"Since you passed my test for you," Arceus explained, "while in your coma I was able to put you through dreams designed to test you and your devotion and love for Pokemon. You exemplify all the characteristics of a near perfect trainer and have proven yourself time and time again even in the toughest of situations. Now that you have died however I've selected you as Trainer Zero, or the trainer that will be given the very special power of being able to turn humans into Pokemon."

"What!" Ash exclaimed, "you want me to turn humans into Pokemon?"

"Not all of them," Arceus explained, "just some of them. All of them will actually want to turn into Pokemon. It might be difficult to understand from your perspective but on that world people are much more willing. It will still not always be easy, but you'll receive help from many individuals that existed in your coma world I created in your own mind in order for you to get to know them. However they can be entirely different from what you knew them to be. You'll be presented with opportunities to turn them into pokemon. Then it will be your duty to train them and love them, and also decide when you want to reveal your ability to the world. Another thing required of you will be to go around and catch every type of Pokemon there is, beginning with the ones only found in the equivalent version of the region of Kanto."

"That certainly sounds like a lot required of me," Ash insisted as he struggled ti figure it all out, "but I suppose if I must..."

Arceus smiled and said, "I know that you'll be up to the task. What I'll be doing is sending you into the body of your counterpart Ash in this world, although at the same age as you were when you died at 16 while still in your coma. In addition, I'll be sending Pikachu to be with you too. Pikachu also fell into a coma at the same time you did and was made to dream out the same events you did, only from her point of view. That way you'll at least have someone to talk to and rely on automatically."

That sounded really good. If Pikachu remembered him, then that would be a huge benefit to him.

"Your adventure begins...now," Arceus told him.

He wanted to yell that he wasn't done talking to her, that there were still plenty of things he didn't understand but instead she faded and the next thing Ash knew he was waking up in his bed in his room back in Pallet town.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

At first it didn't appear anything was different in this world, but as he glanced around some of the posters were different.

Instead of Pokemon, there appeared to be pictures of various music groups that he didn't recognize.

Yet the biggest, most obvious changes was to himself.

Looking down, he noted that he appeared to be much...bigger in a lot of places. More grown up to put it better.

As he rushed into the bathroom to look in the mirror, he was impressed with how muscular he appeared to be.

Evidently this Ash worked out a lot.

His face looked older, he was taller, and he certainly had hair in places he did not have before...although he did not appear to have any on his face.

He sighed. Apparently he was destined never to have a beard, although he supposed it could be worse. Being stuck in the body of a Koffing or being dead being high on that list.

"Ash are you in there?" His mother called as she knocked on the bathroom door.

"Just a second mom," Ash replied.

He was eager to find out if his mother had changed at all.

As he opened it to look at her, he noted that she didn't appear to have changed at all, looking exactly the same as when he had last saw her.

That was one good thing, although he couldn't be sure if perhaps her personality had changed.

"Well Ash are you ready?" His mother asked him brightly.

"For what?" He asked.

"To start your Pokemon journey silly," She answered, "you'll be getting your first Pokemon and leaving today."

Pikachu, he thought. Or at least he hoped so. He didn't know if he could do it without his best friend.

He had a feeling that it would be a lot different from the many other times that he'd gone on Pokemon journeys.

"I sure am," Ash quickly replied.

"Well we're going to want to hurry if we want to get to Professor Ivy's on time," She commented.

Apparently in this world, Professor Ivy was the Pokemon professor of Pallet town.

"True," Ash agreed, "and I suppose we can finish packing after we get back."

"All right, you sure you don't need anymore underwear?" His mother asked him, causing him to blush.

"Mom!" Ash said, "you're embarrassing me."

"Well I didn't ask you in public," She pointed out, "just making sure you've got enough clothes."

He thought for a moment about some of the things he wished he had brought with him on his "first" Pokemon journey.

One thing immediately occurred to him.

"Would you happen to know about me getting a bike?" Ash asked her.

She looked at him in surprise and then told him, "Bikes are ridiculously expensive Ash, they cost 1 million dollars new."1

"Oh right," Ash replied.

If they had cost that much in his world he'd never have been able to pay Misty back for the bike of hers that he had destroyed.

"However that does bring something up that I've been meaning to tell you about," She answered, "I actually sold the restaurant."

"You what!" Ash exclaimed incredulously.

His mom had had that restaurant for as long as he could remember.

"Well I got offered a really good deal on it," She explained, "I sold it for 500 thousand dollars."

"That's a lot of money," Ash had to admit, "so what are you going to do now?"

"Well I was thinking..." She replied, "maybe I could go with you?"

"You mean go with me on my Pokemon journey?" He asked.

That would certainly be something new. He was quite used to doing things away from his mother.

"I mean it's not like you're 10 like some crazy people were suggesting they allow kids to go off on Pokemon journeys at,"2 She concluded, "but you're still not totally an adult and I worry about you."

He was about to reply that he felt he could handle everything on his own, but then he thought about it.

It would admittedly be rather nice to have his mother around to give him help and advice, especially with this totally new world he would be entering that he knew nothing about.

For all he knew the moment he showed up at Professor Ivy's lab she would turn out to be the leader of Team Rocket here.

"Actually I think that's a good idea," He finally said.

"Oh good," She replied happily, "I was concerned you might not want me around."

"Of course not Mom," Ash insisted.

After finishing getting ready, he headed over with his mom to Professor Ivy's.

"Ah, there you are Ash," Professor Ivy greeted him when they got there, still looking the same as he was used to, "are you ready to get your very first pokemon?"

"I sure am," Ash answered before asking warily, "I'm not late or anything am I or have all the Pokemon suddenly disappear for some reason?"

"No, why would you think that?" She asked him, "you're right on time and you're the only trainer from Pallet heading out this year."

Well that was probably a plus. No stupid Gary Oak to contend with...or those dumb cheerleaders who used to follow him around.

Professor Ivy then informed him: "Well I've got 3 pokemon for you to choose from: charmander, the fire pokemon, squirtle, the water pokemon, and bulbasaur, the grass pokemon. Which do you choose?"

That was certainly different, all 3 starters still being available.

However there was only one Pokemon for him.

"Isn't there another Pokemon available?" Ash asked her hopefully.

Professor Ivy reluctantly admitted, "Well there is one other Pokemon, but you wouldn't want that one. She's a bit...difficult."

"Is it a Pikachu?" Ash inquired.

Professor Ivy looked surprised as she asked, "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," Ash answered, now happy to know that, "I'll take it."

Professor Ivy handed him a Pokeball.

Pikachu, Ash thought as he stared down at it.

However he hesitated for just a second.

What if it wasn't his best friend? Or perhaps it was but she didn't remember him.

Well there was only one way to find out.

He opened up the pokeball and immediately Pikachu popped out.

Only it was not the Pikachu he was used to seeing.

Instead what came out was a girl, she appeared to be about his own age although somewhat shorter, had a cute face, and had long midbutt length yellow hair, pointy yellow ears, and the usual Pikachu zigzag tail.

He also had to admit that she was actually really pretty.

Pikachu fortunately was not naked like Pokemon usually were, wearing clothes that seemed to perfectly match the same color as a Pikachu, or in other words all yellow.

"Hello Ash," Pikachu said, smiling at him.

Wow Pikachu could talk here!

That was certainly new and interesting, not that he was complaining. He'd always wanted to be able to talk to Pikachu without having to decipher her pokespeech.

As he studied her however what was more important was the way she was looking at him, like she recognized him, although wasn't willing to admit it with Professor Ivy and his mom nearby.

Nevertheless, he couldn't resist giving Pikachu a big hug.

It felt different from the hugs he was used to giving Pikachu, but it still felt very familiar and nice to him.

"It appears you've already bonded," Professor Ivy commented, sounding quite pleased.

"Yep," Ash had to agree as he broke the hug with Pikachu.

"She's adorable Ash," His mom exclaimed.

"Thanks," Pikachu replied, "you hear that Ash, I'm adorable!"

"You already knew you were adorable though," Ash pointed out.

"Well I was kind of worried I might not be anymore," Pikachu admitted.

"You look great Pikachu," Ash agreed.

"She certainly does," His mom concluded, "I admit I was kind of hoping you might choose Charmander, one of my favorite Pokemon, but after seeing your Pikachu, it just seems like the right choice for you somehow."

"I quite agree," Professor Ivy said happily as she then handed him a red device, "I'll also give you your very first pokedex, which will allow you to learn information about each Pokemon when you scan a picture of them along your journey. Try using it on Pikachu."

Ash held out the pokedex towards pikachu and did it the exact same way he did in his old world.

Information then popped up on the screen in front of him.

Pikachu: the small lightning girl Pokemon. Distinguishable mainly for their small size, yellow hair, and lightning bolt shaped tail, this Pokemon is very fast and uses electricity to great effect.

Individual stats for this pokemon:

Height: 4'6

Hair: yellow midbutt length

Breast Size: D cup

Level: 5

Known Attacks: Thundershock, Tail whip, and Growl

Further information such as stats and nature will require better analysis.

"If you want to do further analysis," Professor Ivy suggested, "you're going to want to actually touch the Pokemon with the pokedex, like this:"

Professor Ivy took his pokedex before touching it against Pikachu's arm.

After the data popped up, she commented, "wow, your pokemon has really high stats."

"Really?" Ash asked.

He'd also known Pikachu was really strong but never had a pokedex that told him just how strong.

"It's by far the highest I've ever seen for a Pikachu, I wouldn't have believed a pikachu could be this strong at such a low level," Professor Ivy observed.

"Hey," Pikachu exclaimed indignantly at being called being at a low level.

"She also said that you were ridiculously strong too," Ash pointed out to her.

"Well I already knew that," Pikachu said pridefully.

Back during their coma adventures, Pikachu had gotten all the way to a level 100...except now that he thought about it she never seemed to stay at that level, frequently dropping down to much lower levels...which had admittedly had made things much more difficult for him in battle, causing him to still lose occasionally.3

As it was just a dream it was likely just one of the many things that had occurred that were weird and he had never bothered to question.

"I'm guessing you still don't like being inside your pokeball?" Ash asked her.

"Nope, I'd much rather be here with you!" Pikachu immediately claimed brightly.

He grinned, happy to have Pikachu constantly with him, in any form.

"That's actually quite unusual," Professor Ivy commented, "the pokeball world is supposed to be really quite wonderful for Pokemon."

"How so?" Ash asked her.

"We don't know since no Pokemon can seem to tell us," Professor Ivy explained, "we at least know that Pokemon inside them are always able to groom and care for themselves without any known aid and as long as you keep your Pokemon's balls near each other, they end up going to the same place so they can interact with one another. I don't really understand it, but then again I'm not a Pokemon. In any case, they seem perfectly content to stay in them until we choose to bring them out for something."

"I've always wondered that too," His mom confessed.

"Unfortunately humans just won't go into pokeballs," Professor Ivy admitted, "we've also tried to turn people into Pokemon but so far we've been unsuccessful."

"I'd like to be a Pokemon," His mom answered, "maybe start out as a Charmander and then eventually evolve into a Charizard. That would be really cool."

"I think we'd all like to become Pokemon," Professor Ivy concluded, "there would be so many advantages and Pokemon just seem so much more happy than humans despite all that they do for us."

Personally he was thinking about what Arceus had told him about being able to turn humans into Pokemon.

Maybe he should try it out on his mom?

Besides she evidently really wanted to be a Pokemon.

There was only one way to find out, he decided.

"Well why don't I try capturing you mom?" Ash pretended to joke as he pulled an empty pokeball out.

He tossed the pokeball lightly, wondering what would happen, but she disappeared with a red beam of light like any Pokemon would.

"What on earth?" Professor Ivy asked in total shock.

"Where did she go?" Ash asked, pretending not to know.

"Do you think...maybe?" Professor Ivy concluded as she looked down at the pokeball he had thrown.

He picked it up and then opened it up.

For a brief moment he was relieved as his mom suddenly reappeared, but then he was only shocked once again as he noted that his mom had clearly changed.

She was now much shorter, perhaps only slightly taller than pikachu, her hair was now more orange than it was its usual reddish-brown, and her clothes had clearly changed as well to configure with that of a Charmander.

The most prominent change however was that she now had an orange tail sticking out through a hole in her shorts with a flame burning at the tip.

"Why does everything look bigger?" She asked, not realizing what had happened to her.

"Uh mom," Ash tried to gently point out, "look behind you."

As she looked she suddenly noticed her tail.

"What?" She asked in surprise as she grasped at her tail, being careful not to touch the flame...but once she did was surprised that it didn't actually burn her.

"Extraordinary! You seem to be a pokemon now!" Professor Ivy exclaimed.

"How could this have happened?" His mom asked Professor Ivy in bewilderment.

"I really don't know, this is totally unprecedented," Professor Ivy said, still trying to figure it out herself.

He however said nothing, deciding to keep his knowledge of his new power and exactly where he was from private for now.

"Are you okay mom?" He asked her gently.

If she was actually upset he wasn't sure if he could forgive himself.

She seemed to think for a moment before answering.

"Actually I feel great," She admitted, "better than I've ever felt before. It might take some getting used to, but it's really not so bad. Besides, I'm a Charmander just like I wanted to be."

At least she wasn't too upset. Then again his mom was usually really positive.

Professor Ivy examined the pokeball Ash had used and then declared, "the pokeball appears to be totally ordinary. I can't seem to find any modifications to it or anything. It could just be a total fluke but this could have major implications when it comes to science."

"If we tell people, they might want to lock my mom up and study her forever, I wouldn't want that to happen to her," Ash pointed out.

Professor Ivy reluctantly agreed, and then said, "I suppose if we're not going to say anything, I'll just have to study her myself. For now however I'm afraid you're going to have to leave Pallet town Mrs. Ketchum. You still look too much like yourself and are likely to be recognized."

She seemed to think for a moment and then suggested to him, "I was already planning to leave anyway although things might be a bit different. Maybe I could just be your pokemon and have you be my trainer."

"Are you sure?" Ash asked her.

"Yes, I think I'd really like that if you'll have me," She replied.

"Of course, I'd love to have you as my pokemon," Ash insisted.

The relationship between them would likely have to change, but at least she was happy, and if she was, then so was he.

"Great Ash!" His mom told him as she went to go give him a hug.

It was of course different, but it still somehow felt like a hug from his mother, although a bit warmer in account of the close proximity to her tail.

However he was pleased to know that it did not actually burn him.

His Charizard used to like to blow flames straight into his face, but it hadn't actually hurt. This appeared to work the same way.4

"Well I think I'd better run some tests to make sure you're okay, Mrs. Ketchum," Professor Ivy recommended.

She nodded her assent.

Well, he thought. This was definitely already becoming quite an interesting new adventure. He now had Pikachu and his second pokemon was actually his mom. He was curious as to how that would turn out but at least she was a Charmander which actually a pretty good Pokemon.5

Author's Note: As you might have noticed with the little subscripts throughout the story, I figured I'd make little notes as the story continues, mainly to point out some of the problems I found with Pokemon that I aim to correct or explain better.

1. At least in the video games, bicycles are ridiculously expensive at 1 million dollars making it impossible for you to buy one, yet you even have entire routes devoted to them with plenty of bikers there and I doubt they are all just uber-rich. Therefore bikes will be a lot less common here, considered the private jets of the pokemon world

2. I realize that they are trying to cater to a young child audience, but what kind of caring parent would ever allow their child to go off on their own for that long. Therefore I upped Ash's age to 16 and decided to allow Ash's mom to come with him anyway. I don't know if she will be in the harem but I definitely think she should actually come on a pokemon journey with Ash for once.

3. Why oh why does Pikachu manage to frequently beat incredibly strong Pokemon, yet somehow lose to really weak ones?

4. His Pokemon attacking him, such as Charizard blowing flames directly into his face doesn't ever really hurt him. This will be dealt with more in detail later.

5. Charmander is a rather good Pokemon and should give Ash good reason to train her. Sorry no abandoned Charmander for Ash to get in this story unfortunately.

Please Review.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Here we go. Two brand new chapters. Yay!

Chapter 3

Once Professor Ivy finished her tests and pronounced his mom healthy, albeit fully a Pokemon now, she suggested that he go and train nearby in order to determine if she truly had a Pokemon's abilities.

As he looked over at his mom, however, he realized that people around Pallet might still recognize her and wonder just what had happened to her.

"Would you...um...mind going back in your pokeball so I can take you back home?" Ash asked her.

"Of course," She quickly agreed, "and I have to admit even though I was only in there for a second, being in a pokeball is actually a really pleasant experience."

While it wasn't exactly what he had first envisioned, his mother being his own Pokemon while he went on a journey, he'd be happy to have her with him.

He held out his mom's pokeball and then did what he usually did to suck Pokemon back into their pokeball.

Now safe, he attached her pokeball, along with Pikachu's empty one to his belt and then headed back home.

Once he got back there and was safely inside, he released her again.

"Wow, being a Pokemon actually isn't so bad," She observed.

"What was it like in that pokeball?" Ash asked her.

She seemed prepared to tell him, but then she got an odd look on her face as she commented, "since I'm a pokemon now I don't think I can."

"Well that's okay," Ash replied, not really expecting her to be able to answer, "at least you like it in there."

"I don't see why you don't like it Pikachu," His mom told his other Pokemon.

"I like being out here with Ash a lot more," Pikachu insisted.

"Well if it gets bad, we'll just have to see if Professor Ivy can maybe turn you back," Ash told his mom.

"Okay, but for the time being I'm perfectly okay with it," His mother answered.

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

"You know, if you're going to be my Pokemon, then I can't really be going around calling you mom," He pointed out.

She thought for a moment and then suggested, "Why don't you just call me by my first name? Delia?"

"I suppose that could work," He agreed, "I could just tell everyone I named you after my mom."

"You know, you might want to check to see my pokedex entry," She suggested to him.

"Good idea," He agreed as he got out his pokedex.

Charmander, a fire type pokemon. In addition to being able to use fire, it can project out its nails into sharp claws.

"How do I do that?" She asked.

However as she seemed to concentrate on it, her fingernails suddenly grew very long and much thicker into sharp claws.

"Wow," She said, admiring them, "I could probably chop carrots with these."

He looked down at the pokedex for additional information.

Height: 4'7

Hair: orange midback length

Breast Size: B cup

"My breasts are actually two cup sizes smaller than they were when I was a human," She commented.

"Why do they even have that stat on there?" Ash asked.

She did not seem surprised by his question however.

"I forget that you're just starting out as a trainer. Pokemon, being almost all girls are rather proud of their breasts and their size since it is the easiest indicator of just how strong a Pokemon is. The stronger the pokemon, the bigger the cup size, although of course it is done in proportion. A pokedex will factor my pokesize and then figure out what I would be if I were human sized at 5'6 with the same proportions whether I am smaller or bigger than 5'6. There are of course certain factors that also affect it.

Each different type of pokemon has a range of just how strong they can be. A very low leveled Charmander like me would only have at most a B cup to start out with, which would mean I likely have rather strong base stats.

However once I evolve my stats would improve meaning my breasts would get a lot bigger.

When you see a very busty pokemon, you can expect them to be a very strong pokemon at a very high level."

"I see," Ash answered, not really sure how to reply to that.

He might be physically older, but he'd certainly missed out on most of puberty.

Unfortunately he felt like there was a lot he was going to need to figure out in a very short space of time.

"Well I guess I'd better go get ready," She suggested as she hurried off to her room.

Now that he and Pikachu were finally alone, he asked Pikachu, "So, do you remember?"

"Remember what Ash?" Pikachu asked him, sounding confused.

His heart sank. Evidently Pikachu really didn't remember him.

Then she smiled and confessed, "Sorry I couldn't resist. Of course I remember. Arceus came to me as well and told me everything before I got here."

"I'm glad I at least have someone who remembers all that," Ash said, "especially you Pikachu."

"So am I," Pikachu admitted, "it feels kind of weird in this new body though. I'm so big now."

"That's because you were so small before, but I know what you mean," Ash agreed, "I'm a lot older than I was back in Pallet town. I've even gone through puberty by now."

"You look strong," Pikachu observed, "for a human at least."

"Hey!" Ash declared.

"That's not an insult it's just Pokemon are usually stronger than humans," Pikachu pointed out.

"True," He was forced to agree.

"Well at least now I can talk to you," Pikachu replied.

"I definitely noticed," Ash commented, "it'll be good to be able to do that, especially as we try to figure out this whole new world."

"Yep, it's certainly going to be interesting," Pikachu replied.

They continued to chat until his mom came back in with her stuff.

"How on earth am I going to be able to carry all of this?" Ash asked as he looked at the huge pile that she had amassed.

"Just zap it into my pokeball with me," She suggested, "there should be plenty of room for it there and I'll keep it inside the pokeball for most of the time."

"I guess that will work," He agreed, not wanting to show that he didn't know you could do that in this world.

He did as she suggested and then zapped it in.

"Well are you ready Delia and Pikachu?" He asked both of his Pokemon.

"Ready," Both of them agreed.

"Okay, then let's get going," Ash replied.

After putting his mom or rather Delia as he was supposed to call her back into her pokeball, he and pikachu set off.

As they left the town, Pikachu was already a bit of a ways ahead of him.

"Come on Ash!" Pikachu said excitedly, obviously eager to get started.

"I don't see how you are faster than me, I have longer legs," He pointed out as he struggled to keep up.

"Pikachu are naturally much faster than a human," Pikachu informed him, "especially when I use agility."

"Well at least you don't have that ability just yet," He pointed out.

"What!" Pikachu exclaimed, "you mean I have to start over!"

"It appears so," Ash confirmed, "at least that's what it said when I read your pokedex."

"You'll probably just have to get by with Thundershock," He recommended.

"That's so weak though," Pikachu insisted, "let me at least try a volt tackle."

Pikachu seemed to be concentrating really hard, but nothing happened.

"What a waste," Pikachu replied.

"Well admittedly our entire time in our coma was really a waste and this world already appears to be vastly different," Ash observed.

Pikachu just shook her head and then led him over to some tall grass.

Experience had taught him that wild pokemon were in tall grass.

Yet as he searched, he couldn't seem to find any.

"Maybe we should try knocking on that hut instead," Pikachu suggested as she pointed at a small wooden hut.

It wasn't very big or tall, but he'd guess that it would be the perfect size for a small pokemon.

He knocked on the door and waited until the door opened.

As he looked at who answered, it appeared to be a very small girl only 3 feet in height, midback length light brown hair, and her most prominent feature proving that she was not human was her brown and white wings, which extended out behind her.

If he had to guess what pokemon she was, he'd say that she was a pidgey.

"Hello," Ash greeted her.

"Do you wish to battle me?" She asked him.

"Yes," Ash answered.

"Oh good," She said happily as she came outside.

"So um...how do we battle?" He asked her.

"You mean you don't know?" She asked him before guessing why, "let me guess, you're a beginner trainer."

"This is actually my first battle," He admitted.

"Well then I'll help you out," She recommended, "I'm a level 5 pidgey which means I'm good to battle against for new trainers like you, but one of the stronger pokemon in this area. Since I don't have a trainer I can't gain any levels or get any stronger. All of the other pokemon in this area are all low leveled which means that a lot of new trainers start out here. You can only battle me once and then if I am defeated and all of my health is gone you'll have to wait for at least a couple of hours so I can rest and then battle you again. However your pokemon will get a certain amount of experience for defeating me, but nothing if you lose."

"Do you enjoy doing that? Battling trainers all the time?" Ash asked her.

She looked at him like he was an idiot.1

"Of course, what Pokemon wouldn't like battling?" She pointed out, "Battling is by far the best part of life. It would be better if we had a trainer but of course not every Pokemon can have trainers and usually trainers don't want pidgey because we're so common and weak."

"You can be my pokemon if you want," Ash invited.

She grinned and said, "I'd like that, but first you're going to have to defeat me."

Ash went out into a field with Pidgey on the other end.

"I'll use Pikachu," He answered.

"Good choice," She replied approvingly.

Of course it was a good choice. Being an electric Pokemon, Pikachu was strong against birds, although he was somewhat nervous, since Pikachu wasn't used to being humanlike, and perhaps the type advantages were different in this world.

"I'll do it for you Ash," Pikachu told him as she stepped up.

"Use thundershock," He commanded Pikachu.

Pikachu seemed to concentrate as electricity surrounded her, before it was released, hitting the Pidgey girl.

After the attack, Pidgey looked visibly weaker, but she still was on her feet.

"That's a very strong attack," Pidgey admitted, "even for a pikachu. I feel like I'm about to faint."

"So does this mean I should try to capture you now?" Ash asked.

"If you want, but I'm still going to try to resist, I'm not about to just give up," Pidgey declared.

"I'll take my chances," Ash answered as he withdrew a pokeball.

He tossed it at Pidgey and she disappeared inside the pokeball. The ball shook a few times as Pidgey fought before "click."

Pidgey was caught.

All right! Ash thought, he'd just caught his first Pokemon. Sort of.

Sort of because he already had two Pokemon and he'd caught plenty of Pokemon back in his coma world.

After picking up the ball, he then immediately released Pidgey.

"Good job, you caught me," Pidgey declared.

"I have Pikachu to thank for that," He told Pidgey, causing Pikachu to have a bit of pride.

"So what do we do now Ash?" Pikachu then asked.

"Well we have to stick around Pallet town for awhile remember so we should probably train some more. If I'm right this area should just have weak pidgey and rattata and sometimes spearow migrate through here."2

"That would be correct," Pidgey confirmed, "there are plenty of pidgey and rattata huts around here, although they are kind of hard to tell which is which. Some trainers go after bigger huts in the hopes of getting bigger and stronger pokemon to battle, but the truth is you never know which you will get. Some rattata I know have huts the size of a human house for example."

As Ash glanced around the area, he spotted numerous pokemon houses in varying sizes nearby.

"Well I guess it will be just like training, you'll never know what kind of pokemon you might run into next," Ash observed, "well let's get going."

"You should probably know that if you wish to use me to battle, that I'll need to be taken to a pokemon center or given a potion," Pidgey told him.

"It's okay, we'll get to getting you some experience later," Ash told her.

Pidgey smiled happily at that.

"Couldn't you at least tell us where we can find some good pokemon to battle?" Pikachu asked Pidgey.

"No, no pokemon would ever do that," Pidgey insisted, "it would ruin the experience for the trainer."

Ash sighed and said, "All right Pidgey, thanks, I'll bring you back out if I need you."

After putting Pidgey back, he asked Pikachu, "ready to beat some pokemon?"

"Absolutely," Pikachu answered with a smile.

So he started searching around for pokemon huts.

While he might have liked to take all the pokemon he encountered with him since they all seemed to be eager to have a trainer, but when he tried to capture a second pidgey it failed to work.

He'd finally had to get his mom out to ask her just why that was.

Apparently in order to prevent overcapturing and depleting the Pokemon in the area too much, only one Pokemon per species was allowed.

He supposed that made sense.

He spent the entire day fighting Pokemon, mostly just pidgey and rattata, but he did find and catch a spearow along with one of the rattata, bringing his pokemon total up to 5.

While that was a lot of Pokemon to catch in a day, he felt like it was mission to do so, even though Arceus hadn't really explained why, and he was finding pokemon a lot easier to catch here.

He really didn't think it was supposed to be that easy, but perhaps Arceus was helping out in some way.

Pikachu on the other hand was happy about getting so much experience in a day. She'd already gone up a couple levels.3

Usually if he trained hard for weeks he might get that many, but he suspected Arceus was making that easier for him too somehow.

Although to be fair, since Pikachu seemed to be so naturally strong to begin with, she was knocking out all of her competition with just one attack.

At night, he decided to make a campfire before he realized he actually had a fire type Pokemon to make one instead of having to use matches.

He released his mom from her pokeball.

"Hi mom," Ash greeted her, "did you enjoy your time in your pokeball?"

"Hello Ash," She said warmly, "I sure did, and how did your first day of training go?"

"Fantastic," He replied, "it was a bit new to me at first but I seem to be getting the hang of things."

"Well Pidgey, Rattata, Spearow, and I have been having a fun time in pokeball world since we're all in your party," She admitted.

"How many pokemon can you have in your party?" Ash wanted to know.

She seemed confused before passing it off as simply beginner trainer inexperience.

"There is no limit on how many pokemon can be in your party as long as they are different types," She explained, "we try to limit people from simply catching 100 pidgey or something, so there is only 1 allowed per type per trainer. However it's usually much harder to catch pokemon than people realize. Most trainers only manage to get only a few pokemon, meaning that whatever you are doing to catch so many so fast is really special."4

He had a sneaking suspicion Arceus was somehow making it significantly easier to catch pokemon than it should for him.

"What about in battles?" Ash wanted to know.

"The amount varies, but the most you are allowed to use in one battle is 6," His mom explained.

That wasn't too out there, he decided.

"Ash," His mom or Delia as he should probably refer to her as now, "how come you didn't use me to train today?"

"I just...um wanted to train Pikachu first," He said defensively.

"Okay, well I'd really like to be given a chance," She told him.

"All right, I'll work on training you tomorrow," Ash promised.

After a moment he then asked her.

"Well could you make us a fire?"

She smiled and then put her tail directly onto the fire pit he had made, causing it to ignite.

Soon he had a roaring fire going.

While he and his pokemon ate, he continued to talk to his mom about what it was like being a pokemon before deciding to go to bed.

For bed, he let all of his pokemon back into their pokeballs, but then he realized he did not actually have an extra sleeping bag for Pikachu.

"Pikachu, do you want my sleeping bag?" He offered to her.

"Why can't we just share like we always do?" Pikachu pointed out.

"Well I mean, you're kind of a girl now," Ash answered, now blushing.

"So," She replied, "I always sleep with you. Are you saying that just because I'm different now you don't like me?"

Pikachu looked like she was about to cry.

"Of course not," Ash insisted, now feeling guilty, "all right, I guess you can sleep with me then."

"Yay!" Pikachu replied.

As both of them got into the sleeping bag it somehow felt weird.

Not because the sleeping bag wasn't big enough for the both of them but because he was now sleeping snuggled in next to a girl.

It's not like he had anything against girls especially considering having spent so much time with many different girls on his adventures, but he felt somehow...nervous or something, and he wasn't sure exactly why.

Pikachu didn't seem to have any problems as she snuggled closer into him however so he just let things go and tried to get some sleep.

Author's Notes:

1. I suppose it's possible that Pokemon simply enjoy battling. They would have to be willing to continue doing it.

2. I'll be following a lot of the video games for stuff since so much is missing in the anime. Having the pokemon mostly be confined to certain regions and at similar levels is easiest, and possibly believable, no different than say a certain racial group congregating in one area or social or economic class. Okay, not exactly, but let's face it, Pokemon will never truly make sense.

3. In the anime its very hard to know as far as leveling is concerned. However in the video games, you level far too quickly. If I did it that fast, every trainer in the Pokemon world would very quickly have level 100s. So instead I'm having it be very difficult for Pokemon to level up, especially at the higher levels. For Ash it will take less time, but it's still going to take him a year to get to the Pokemon league, which in this world is extremely fast, and certainly won't be easy.

4. Most trainers will only have at most 6 pokemon, but of course there will be a few exceptions such as gym leaders and the Elite Four. Ash of course will have way more than that, but again there will be certain disadvantages to that. Also Ash will eventually have a set team of six that he most uses.

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	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next day Ash awoke to find Pikachu gone.

"Pikachu?" He called worriedly.

"I'm right here Ash," Pikachu answered.

He looked in the direction of Pikachu's voice before immediately shutting his eyes.

"Um, pikachu?" Ash asked, now highly embarrassed, "why aren't you wearing your clothes?"

"I wanted to wash them like I've always seen you do," Pikachu informed him.

"Yes, but I usually wear other clothes while I'm doing that," Ash pointed out.

"I didn't have any other clothes," Pikachu answered.

Personally he was rather confused how that worked. He knew that pokemon came with one pair of clothes in this world that changed if they evolved and they apparently somehow always had them clean but he wasn't sure exactly how, just that they figured it out inside their pokeball although he supposed then it wouldn't actually work for Pikachu since she was never in her pokeball.

"I guess we'll just have to get you some more clothes," Ash observed.

"I don't really see why I even need to wear clothes at all," Pikachu argued, "I didn't have to before and being naked feels so much more freeing."

"Since you're...um...more humanlike and humans wear clothes," Ash insisted.

"Okay," Pikachu reluctantly agreed, "can you help me put my clothes back on then? I don't really know what to do with this...bra...I think you call it?"

He blushed still redder even as he kept his eyes closed.

"I'll have to have my mom help you with that," He offered.

"Why can't you Ash?" Pikachu wanted to know.

"Since I'm a boy and you're a girl," Ash countered.

"I've always been a girl though and you've seen me naked that whole time," Pikachu insisted.

"Well you have a different body though," He replied.

"I love my new body though and I want you to see it," Pikachu told him, "don't you like my new body?"

Once again he felt guilty but he still sighed, wondering just what he was going to say to his Pokemon.

"How about I just give you a treat if you stop arguing with me and put some clothes on the best you can?" Ash suggested.

"Okay," Pikachu quickly agreed.

He just shook his head. This was going to take some getting used to.

Seeing Pikachu naked like that...

It caused him to think certain things...all of which he was rather confused about.

Finally he just shook his head and decided to focus instead on the day that lay ahead of him.

He decided to get some more training in.

Remembering his promise to his mom, he decided to bring his mom out for some training, selecting a level 2 rattata as her first opponent.

"All right, my first battle!" His mom said as she realized he was going to be using her to fight.

"What are my attacks?" She asked him.

After looking at his pokedex, he said, "well it looks like the only damage dealing attack you know is Scratch."

"I don't know any fire moves? I am a fire type Pokemon after all." She pointed out.

"Well, you're only a level 5 apparently so you don't know any fire moves yet," He told her, "just use scratch."

As the battle began, he was afraid his mom wouldn't know what to do, but he supposed her Pokemon instincts must have kicked in because she was able to successfully scratch the Rattata.

The Rattata girl looked shaken but otherwise appeared fine.

It countered with a tackle, causing Delia to fall.

"Mom?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm fine," She answered, "it actually didn't hurt, I just feel more tired."

"Good to hear," Ash replied, "do you think you could try to scratch it again?"

"Sure," Delia told him.

She scratched the rattata again, and this time she fainted.

"All right, I won," Delia said excitedly.

"Good job," He praised her.

For his next battle, he did the same thing with her, and then the next.

By that time however, she confessed, "I feel really tired like I might faint, if I'm going to be able to battle again I'm going to need either a potion or get healed somewhere."

"I could take you to Professor Ivy to heal you," He suggested.

It was something he should have expected. Eventually Pokemon that took damage needed a chance to be healed. He really hadn't had a problem with that with pikachu since she basically one hit ko-ed everyone they faced, proving that she was a really strong and special pokemon.

"Good idea," Ash agreed.

He put her back into her pokeball before taking her to see Professor Ivy.

In addition to her healing his mom and all of his other Pokemon, she examined his mom for a bit but still wasn't able to figure out how she had become a Pokemon and he chose again not to tell her.

"It could simply be you," She suggested, "perhaps some sort of ability like pokemon have."

"An ability?" He asked, pretending to play dumb, "like being able to use thundershock or something?"

"No, nothing like that, although a pokemon's abilities did give me the idea," Professor Ivy confessed, "of course it could just be a fluke thing, but what if it really is you? Think of the possibilities. Could you be able to turn any human into any Pokemon? Could a person even become a legendary such as a Moltres or an Articuno?"

Ash hadn't thought of that.

"The problem is that the only way to find that out is if we test it on another human," Professor Ivy argued.

"Just who did you have in mind?" Ash asked.

"Myself," Professor Ivy admitted.

"You?" Ash asked in shock, "you want to be a Pokemon?"

"I've given it a lot of thought, and decided that with science there comes some risks, even risks that should be taken by the scientist themselves. Many diseases for example would not have had cures found for them had the scientist not tested the disease and the cure on themselves. I believe this could be rather similar although fortunately it appears there is a much weaker risk of me dying. Besides think of the applications for it. All my life I've studied Pokemon, but there is still so much I don't understand, that I will simply never understand unless I become a Pokemon myself," She explained.

Ash thought for a moment. It was certainly a surprise, but if that was what she really wanted...

"All right, I guess we can try it," He offered.

Professor Ivy smiled and then said, "all right, I'm going to give you a totally unmodified, totally ordinary pokeball, and then I want you to throw it at me. For the purposes of the experiment, I want to test if I can become any pokemon, which is why I selected Articuno."

He frowned. Professor Ivy being an Articuno just did not seem right somehow, but he still tried to envision her being one as best he could.

"This is certainly going to be interesting," His mom commented.

After picking up the pokeball and Professor Ivy had made several notes, upon her command, he tossed the pokeball at her.

Immediately she was sucked into it as the ball then closed.

"Do you think she will really end up being an Articuno?" His mom asked.

"There's only one way to find out," Ash replied.

He released her from her pokeball, yet instead of seeing an Articuno like woman standing there, instead she was much shorter than she used to be as a human. The large green bulb on her back however meant she could be only one Pokemon.

"You're a bulbasaur," Pikachu pointed out.

Professor Ivy appeared to be expecting her body herself.

"Huh, it appears that I can't simply be any Pokemon I want, very interesting," She commented, "however being a bulbasaur somehow seems more fitting, as if I was always meant to be one."

Professor Ivy furiously began to take notes.

Finally once she was satisfied, she decided to test out her body.

She was able to make vines appear out of either side of the bulb on her back just like a real bulbasaur would.

"Vines check," She commented, "now Ash if you would please use your pokedex on me, I'd like to get my stats.

He did so, and this is what he got:

Bulbasaur, the bulb pokemon. It can extend out vines up to 40 feet.

Individual Stats for this Pokemon:

Height: 4'5

Hair length: black midback length

Breast Size: B cup

Professor Ivy went over her other stats herself.

Like his mom, she was at a level 5, but also had rather high stats for a bulbasaur, but within the realm of what a bulbasaur could have.

"While I'm tempted to continue making notes," Professor Ivy admitted, "I think that it might actually be better if I go out with you and experience battling."

He nodded his assent.

Professor Ivy certainly didn't seem unhappy that she was now a Pokemon, in fact it was quite the contrary as she seemed to be bursting with things that she was learning.

He headed out again, but this time Professor Ivy allowed him to bring along her healing machine. It of course wasn't as good as what you might find at a Pokemon center, and would still require the Pokemon to rest for a bit, but it was certainly way better than having to go back and forth to the Pokemon center all the time.

Pikachu could even power the machine herself.

The rest of the day was spent training his Pokemon, focusing mainly on Pikachu, Delia, and Professor Ivy, partially because of Professor Ivy's desire to learn about that aspect of Pokemon, and also because he recognized that there was actually a lot of potential for all 3 of them. He would need a strong team of at least 6 Pokemon if he was to have any hope of getting to the Pokemon league.

His coma experiences had taught him a lot.

When he had first started out, he had tried to hurry as fast as possible.

Now however he took his time gaining valuable experience as a trainer and then plenty for his Pokemon.

He spent several weeks in and near Pallet town. All of his Pokemon had put on at least several levels, which Professor Ivy noted was extremely fast and caused her to speculate quite a bit.

Finally his guilt won him over and he decided to explain everything to her and to his mom one night.

"Wow, that's crazy," His mom admitted once she'd heard.

"I'm sorry for not telling you mom," Ash apologized, "I guess I was just worried that you might treat me differently. After all I'm not exactly your son."

She actually looked indignant to that.

"Of course you're my son," She insisted, "better yet, you're also my trainer."

His mom went and gave him a hug.

"I'll admit it does explain a lot, although it really does bring up even more questions than answers," Professor Ivy pointed out, "I'm not even really sure where to go with my research after this."

"Ash will figure everything out eventually," Pikachu promised.

"Thanks Pikachu," Ash responded warmly, grateful for the vote of confidence.

"No problem," Pikachu insisted, "we'll become the greatest Pokemon team ever!"

"We've still got a long, long way to go," Professor Ivy said.

"What do you think we should do next?" Delia asked.

"I think it's time we moved on," Ash suggested, "if all of you are agreeable, I think we should go to Viridian in the morning."

No one had any objections, but Professor Ivy still wanted to talk.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this," She admitted.

"Don't worry, so am I," Ash answered.

"I'm just glad Ash and I are still together," Pikachu added.

Professor Ivy continued to ask questions and he did his best to answer them, but there was still plenty of course that he simply didn't know.

Finally, now very late, they decided to call it a night.

The next morning, his mom decided to talk to him alone.

"It appears I'm going to have to reteach you plenty of things I thought I'd already done so," She admitted, "although I have to admit it is something of a relief. You were asking so many easy questions I was starting to think that you were just an idiot."

"Gee thanks," Ash responded.

"Don't worry, I'm not bothered if I have to do so, so feel free to ask," She answered, "I also won't try to just teach you everything all at once, although there is one I think I should probably get to right away."

"Okay," Ash replied.

"In your world, you were only 10, and the time between then and 16 as you are now, your body goes through certain changes..."

"You want to give me the puberty talk?" Ash exclaimed worriedly.

"I feel it's a bit necessary," She pointed out, "first of all I noticed just how close you are to Pikachu, and while I don't have a problem with you having a relationship..."

"That's just messed up," Ash argued, "Pikachu is my friend and a Pokemon."

"Lots of trainers have relationships with their Pokemon though," She pointed out, "I figure the chances are very good that may happen to you someday. Of course the Ash in this world knew all about all that, but now I guess I've got to tell you all over again."

"Excuse me, but I really don't think I need this talk," Ash insisted.

She studied him for a second and then said, "all right, but you have to promise me that if you ever do start experiencing feelings for any of your Pokemon that you'll come to talk to me."

"I promise," Ash agreed, mostly so that he wouldn't have to hear this conversation.

His mother moved off, and he finished getting ready for the day.

Today, they would be leaving for Viridian City.

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	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

For the first time, Ash went past where he usually trained on his way to Viridian.

One reason why he had not gone past a certain point if he was honest with himself was that past that was where he had run into Misty for the first time.

It wasn't that he simply didn't want to run the risk of meeting her, quite the contrary, it just seemed so unlikely that he would end up running into her here again and he didn't want to be disappointed.

Somehow it just seemed wrong to be starting out like this without her.

As much as she might have been a bit of a pain sometimes, she was still the first friend he had made as a Pokemon trainer, except of course for Pikachu.

When he got to the lake, he sighed.

It wasn't just because of Misty that this spot bothered to him.

This was the spot that he had ended up falling into a coma and essentially made all his adventures mere dreams.

The thought was certainly not encouraging.

Even now, he wondered if perhaps he actually was awake right now.

He shook his head, such thoughts would get him nowhere. Besides he certainly felt awake, Pikachu had even graciously pinched him a few times just to make sure.

Thanks Pikachu, he thought as he rubbed his arm.

At first glance, Misty did not appear to be here, which filled him with sadness even if he hadn't really been expecting it.

Just as he was beginning to think this however he spotted the bicycle.

He hadn't immediately seen it since it was partially hidden and propped up against a bush, but when he saw it he ran over to it.

As soon as he got to it, a memory flashed into his mind.

This was Misty's bicycle. The one he had destroyed so long ago in a different world.

Yet if this was her bicycle then...where was Misty?

"Ash!" Pikachu called.

He hurried over to where Pikachu was, only to find Pikachu swim into the lake.

She swam over to where there appeared to be something partially floating there.

A body!

With a start he realized he should go help.

Swimming out, he managed to get to where Pikachu was, already half swimming, half carrying the body back.

"I don't think she's breathing," Pikachu admitted worriedly.

Logic told him that it was a good chance that the person had likely been dead for some time, but he decided that if there was any chance of saving them, he would try.

He'd never swam while pulling another person so he wasn't really sure if he was doing much, but fortunately Pikachu's superior strength made up the difference as they managed to bring the person to shore.

As he looked at the person closely however he instantly recognized her.

It was Misty!

She was older for sure, appearing to be about the same age now, but he'd spent enough time around Misty to still be able to recognize her despite the obvious changes.

His desire to save her increased exponentially.

As soon as he could, he brought out his mom and Professor Ivy, hoping that they might be able to do something.

Neither asked what happened, just immediately went to work as they looked her over.

To his surprise, his mom knelt down and began to administer CPR to her.

However Misty remained unresponsive.

While watching, he began to grow more and more discouraged.

What kind of cruel fate was this. To find Misty only to find her already dead?

Finally his mother declared sadly, "I'm sorry, she's already gone."

"We're not giving up on her!" Ash insisted as he went over to Misty.

Yet what could he do that his mother could not?

Then a thought occurred to him.

Pokemon were stronger than humans and far more resilient to just about everything.

Misty's lungs were evidently too full of water to be able to work properly and getting rid of it was ineffective.

For a water pokemon however...

It was a long shot, Misty might not even end up a water Pokemon, but he was all out of ideas or options.

He withdrew a pokeball from his pack and tossed it at Misty.

She disappeared inside the pokeball which was a good sign, but it could also mean he just caught a dead Pokemon.

He'd never actually tried it before on a dead one of course.

Ash picked up the ball before letting her out of it.

Misty reappeared, still just lying there but she appeared to have changed.

She was now much shorter and had a shell on her back.

If he had to guess he'd say she was a Squirtle.

Squirtles could breath in both air and water.

Going over to her, he decided to try CPR again.

The fact that he was kind of invading her personal space would have to be ignored.

He pressed his hands against her chest a few times like he'd seen his mom do and then pressed his lips against hers, breathing air into her lungs.

Soon after, he heard a cough from her.

She was alive.

Looking down at her, she had her eyes open wide now looking straight at him.

Yet instead of thanking him for saving her life, she demanded angrily, "Hey! What's the big idea kissing me?"

She pushed him off him.

"I was saving your life!" Ash argued.

Misty began to look around at just where she was, and then at his Pokemon and then glanced in the direction of her bike.

"Ash was only trying to help you Misty," Pikachu insisted.

"How do you know my name?" Misty asked.

"You're one of the Sensational Sisters are you not?" Professor Ivy provided.

Misty seemed to accept this answer.

"Yes, but I'm not really in their group anymore," Misty answered.

"I'd like to know just what happened before Ash and Pikachu found you," Professor Ivy asked.

"Well I was swimming underwater looking for water Pokemon," Misty admitted, "then I remember hitting my head on something and then..."

Misty began to realize just what might have happened.

"Did I drown?" She asked.

"When Pikachu and I found you, you weren't breathing," Ash explained, "we were only doing what we had to to save you."

Misty seemed to take that in, now looking a bit guilty for getting mad at him and then said graciously, "thank you."

"I wouldn't be thanking him just yet," Professor Ivy warned, "it appears what Ash had to do to save you came with a small price."

"I don't have a lot of money if you are expecting a reward or something," Misty replied.

"I mean you might want to look yourself over dear," His mom suggested gently.

Misty did so, and for the first time realized that she had a shell on her back.

"What the?" She asked, looking totally freaked out.

Not that he could blame her.

"I'm a Pokemon!" Misty yelled loudly enough to prove that her lungs were now working just fine.

"I think we'd better be the ones to explain this to her," His mom suggested.

"Okay, if you think that's best," Ash said.

He zapped Misty into her pokeball along with his other Pokemon except for Pikachu.

When he and Pikachu were alone he commented, "well that was interesting."

"Yeah," Pikachu agreed, "well at least Misty is your Pokemon now. I rather like Misty."

"So do I, but I'm not sure that that this is actually a good thing," Ash answered.

"It's better than letting her die," Pikachu argued.

"True," He was forced to admit.

He went over to Misty's bicycle.

It appeared to be in good shape, but he felt guilty in taking it, especially after having already done so before and in the exact same location.

However he couldn't simply leave it, bikes were far too valuable and it was likely to get stolen if he just left it here.

"What should we do with all this?" Pikachu asked, holding up Misty's backpack, several pokeballs currently inside.

A quick scan with his pokedex told him they contained Misty's Staryu, Starmie, Goldeen, and Psyduck.

He couldn't leave them lying there either.

"We'll have to take it all with us," Ash replied.

"Can I ride?" Pikachu asked excitedly.

"No, neither of us are going to ride, we'll just have to walk it to Viridian," Ash suggested.

"That's no fun at all though!" Pikachu complained.

"You'd be too short for this bike anyway," He pointed out, "besides I don't want to make Misty anymore mad at me than I already have nor repeat what happened last time."

"Okay," Pikachu finally agreed reluctantly.

As he began walking the bike however, Pikachu began giggling.

"What's so funny?" He asked her.

"You kissed Misty," Pikachu admitted.

He blushed but insisted, "I didn't kiss her, I was just giving her CPR."

"You put your lips on hers, it sounds like kissing to me," Pikachu said, "it's about time it happened."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash inquired.

"I just figured you and Misty would make a good couple," Pikachu explained.

"What!" Ash said angrily, "you've got to be kidding me."

Pikachu only smiled and then raced ahead.

What did Pikachu know? Ash thought grumpily. She was just a Pokemon.

Besides Misty was likely to hate him after turning her into a Pokemon even if he'd had to do it to save her life.

He was still annoyed with Pikachu when he got to Viridian.

It was already dark when he finally got there and he was rather tired.

After sleeping in a sleeping bag most of the time on the ground, he was rather used to roughing it so to speak, but he was also in the mood for a nice warm bed and a warm shower.

Before he tended to his own comfort however he had to make sure his Pokemon were okay.

He finally let Misty out of her pokeball just outside the Pokemon Center.

"Hey," Ash greeted her once she had appeared.

"Hey," She responded in a somewhat melancholy tone.

At least she wasn't shouting.

"Are you all right?" He asked her gently.

"I'm fine," She quickly answered even though she didn't look fine.

Misty actually looked like she had been crying.

Yet after a second she admitted, "it's just a lot to take in."

"Yeah," He agreed, "so what did they tell you?"

"Just that you apparently have some ability to turn people into Pokemon," Misty replied.

Ah, so they hadn't told her everything. Probably smart to only tell her so much at once to keep her head from exploding.

"So what do you think of that?" He asked her.

"Well like I said it's a lot to take in. I mean I used to fantasize about being a water Pokemon actually, I just never thought it would actually happen," Misty replied, "it's just I had another vision for myself than this. I wanted to be a trainer and possibly one day even a gym leader."

"Why can't you Misty?" Pikachu wanted to know.

"Since Pokemon don't train other Pokemon that's why," Misty argued, "it's been tried of course but it just doesn't work. I'm probably going to have to have you train my Pokemon Ash."

That thought had not occurred to him.

He would however feel guilty in doing so.

"I'm sorry for doing this to you," He apologized.

"Don't apologize for that," Misty insisted, "you did what you had to do to save me. I would be dead right now without you. This just means that I basically have a new life now."

"Well being a Pokemon is great anyway," Pikachu claimed supportively, "and Ash is the greatest trainer ever."

"Pikachu might be a bit biased," Ash added.

"All your Pokemon seem to like you I've found," Misty observed.

"I got lucky," Ash answered, "as for you though, I'll admit I'd be happy to have you be on my team, but it is of course up to you. I could release you as well if that's what you want."

Misty shook her head.

"Oh no, you're not going to get rid of me that easily, if I'm going to be a Pokemon, I'm going to make the best of it," Misty insisted, "you're going to train me and evolve me. No way I'm staying this short and weak."

Misty had admittedly been teased for being the runt of her family of sisters.

"Deal," He replied.

He, Misty, and Pikachu continued to talk for awhile, but she still had one more stipulation.

"I think I'd prefer to stay outside my pokeball if you don't mind," Misty asked of him, "being inside my pokeball is great but I think I'd like to really experience the world."

That of course was fine with him.

He then entered the Pokemon Center.

The nurse there however was not Nurse Joy.

"Hey, what happened to Nurse Joy?" Ash asked the replacement nurse.

"Oh, she transferred to Cerulean," The Nurse replied.

"What about all the other Nurse Joys?" Ash asked her.

She looked confused as she replied, "there is only one Nurse Joy as far as I know."

Strange. Evidently there was only one Nurse Joy in this world.

As he passed by the Police station, he noted that the Officer coming out of it wasn't Officer Jenny either.

However that did seem to make sense. In his coma world he hadn't noticed it but now that he thought about it it did seem rather ridiculous to have so many relatives all with the same name, looked exactly the same and in the same profession.

It was just one of the many things he was finding wrong about the world he had thought he had lived in.1

After healing all of his Pokemon at the Pokemon Center he headed out in the hopes of finding some place to stay the night.

As he walked around, he felt like he was in luck.

Hotels and Motels were everywhere and the city seemed quite crowded considering its size.

Yet as he tried to enter the first hotel, he was told there was no rooms available.

Or the next two he tried.

The third time this happened he asked the clerk working at the counter why everything was all full.

"Is there some sort of festival or something going on?" Ash inquired.

"No, it's just a whole bunch of trainers waiting for the gym to open," The clerk informed him, "its usually rather bad in most cities with a gym what with all the trainers hoping to schedule matches with the gym leader but here in Viridian, what with the gym leader being gone so often its far worse."2

He supposed that could be a problem.

At least in his coma it seemed the gym leaders were always available and willing to do rematches with him. In real life and in this world it appeared to the gym leaders were much more busy which he supposed made sense.

Finally, he had to give up in finding lodging and instead found a soft portion of ground to sleep on.

He'd brought Misty's sleeping bag with him so that wasn't a problem, but when Misty observed that both he and Pikachu would be sharing one she seemed a bit surprised.

"Oh, are you two together then?" Misty inquired.

He immediately said no and Pikachu said yes.

"No we're not Pikachu," He informed her.

"Yeah we are Ash, we're in the same place aren't we so therefore we have to be together," Pikachu replied, evidently not understanding what Misty had been insinuating.

"She means if we're a couple since she noticed we share the same sleeping bag," Ash replied.

Pikachu blushed at that and admitted, "okay, then no. We're just really, really close. Ash and I are the best of friends."

"Yep," Ash agreed.

"I thought you'd only gotten Pikachu several weeks ago," Misty observed.

"Well it was a fast friendship," Ash replied.

"It must be if you're sharing a sleeping bag," Misty responded, appearing to still be insinuating something more.

Ah, what did Misty know?

Pikachu had always been his best friend and that hadn't changed here either.

Even if she was really cute now.

Now shaking his head at such a thought he got more into the sleeping bag.

Pikachu soon snuggled closer to him.

She'd always done this, and it was comforting, but he also couldn't help but notice how her breasts were pressing against his chest or how some of her hair was draped over his arm.

It felt nice but also made him quite aware of what he was feeling.

Still he ignored it and tried to get some sleep.

I choose to believe that having all the Nurse Joys and Officer Jenny's look the same is merely a result of Ash being in a coma. In this world there is only one of each.

It would seem to me that the gym leaders should be much more busy unless getting gym badges is actually relatively easy or if they simply give badges away even when the trainer doesn't actually win like often happens to Ash. They should also have junior gym trainers in which to weed out the weaker and unprepared trainers. If a trainer simply wasn't good enough, it would be expected that they might choose to stay and train for awhile until they could manage to beat the gym leader. More on that when we get to Brock for Ash's first badge.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Ash awoke the next morning to find Pikachu still asleep and partially on top of him.

He was momentarily surprised to see Misty sleeping not too far away, not used to waking up next to anyone besides Pikachu, but then he remembered what had happened yesterday.

His Pokemon team appeared to be continually growing...even if it did have a few unexpected additions.

Those unexpected additions however made up the bulwark of his team. Not only were each of them a good species with a lot of potential, but their stats were rather high as well, Pikachu of course still being his strongest and most used Pokemon.

However both his mom and Professor Ivy could hold their own in battle, and Misty he hoped would be just as good.

When he had his Pokemon fight each other, his mom wouldn't be too happy being paired with Misty since she had a type advantage, but he supposed that really wasn't too difficult of a problem to solve.

His next thing he nedded to head to the Viridian City Gym...assuming he could even get an audience with the gym leader there.

When Misty and Pikachu woke up, they had a quick breakfast before he decided to check Misty's stats.

His trusty pokedex gave him the following information:

Squirtle: the small shell pokemon. A Squirtle can live both on land and in water.

Individual stats for this pokemon:

Height: 4'4

Hair: orange midback length

Breast Size: B cup

Level: 5

Known Attacks: Tackle, Tail Whip

"Well it's a start," Misty said disappointedly.

"I'd say for a Squirtle you've got some great base stats," Professor Ivy commented, partially to cheer Misty up.

He could almost see the gears running in Professor Ivy's mind wondering if perhaps all human turned Pokemon ended up having really good base stats.

"Don't worry, I'll train you as soon as I can," Ash promised.

"You'd better, I'm not about to be a Squirtle for the rest of my life," Misty warned, "even if Squirtles aren't too bad of a Pokemon. I'm just talking about evolving."

"Absolutely," Professor Ivy agreed, "get a bit more training in and we'll all be evolving shortly I'd imagine."

After finishing checking Misty over, he and his team headed down to the Viridian Gym.

As he headed through town, he couldn't help but notice just how many Pokemon and humans there were running around, starting their days, most of them female, but a few males as well.

When he'd arrived late last night of course most people were already at home, possibly already in bed.

During the day it gave him the opportunity to have a much better account of the city.

It was rather different from the Viridian City he had been used to. He supposed Pallet had been different too but he'd mostly just stayed on the outskirts of town in case anyone recognized either his mom or Professor Ivy and so really hadn't had the chance to really experience it.

As he looked around he was nearly run over by a cart being pulled by 4 Pokemon, all of them female.

"Watch it!" The owner of the cart snapped, a big burly man who then turned back to his Pokemon, "faster!"

Each of the Pokemon hurried to speed up the cart.

Misty just shook her head.

"Some people just abuse their Pokemon like that," Misty said.

"I'd never do that to my Pokemon," Ash commented.

"Don't worry, I'd shock you before I ever let you abuse me," Pikachu told him, trying to be helpful.

"You'd better," Ash urged in all seriousness.

He never wanted to be a jerk to his Pokemon.

"Unfortunately a lot of Pokemon, especially female ones don't have it in them to stand up to their trainers," Misty answered, "it's hard enough finding a mate as it is and they are sometimes taken advantage of."

"How so?" Ash questioned.

"Well only 5 percent of Pokemon are male, you do the math," Misty pointed out.

He did do the math, and he was still wondering just how they managed to repopulate with those numbers. However he was still caught up in wondering about abuse, wondering how that behavior could be allowed.

"Isn't there any laws or something against it?" Ash asked.

"Sure, but it's widespread enough that the cops simply can't arrest everyone who abuses their Pokemon especially if the Pokemon choose never to report it," Misty answered, "most Pokemon owners treat their Pokemon relatively well, but there are plenty who don't."

His conversation with Arceus awhile back came to mind, all about how this world had humans becoming too reliant upon Pokemon, making them lazy.

He was starting to see just what Arceus had meant.

They got to the gym awhile later.

Yet when they got there, a guy told him at the door that there was evidently an 11 month waiting list to fight the gym leader. He still made a reservation for then anyway.

They also took a blood sample for some reason, he wasn't sure why, but he still did it.

"That's if you can even manage to beat the junior gym trainers before that," He informed him smugly, "we're tough, why not check out a battle happening inside so you can see what I mean."

Ash did not like the look of the guy, but he accompanied him inside nonetheless, hoping to possibly take notes.

As he walked inside, he was then led into some stands on the left side of the gym.

In the center of the gym, a battle was just starting.

On one side there was a tough looking guy who appeared to be in his mid twenties, muscles bulging.

Yet it was on the other side that caused him to nearly die of shock.

It was Jessie.

The Jessie from Team Rocket who had attempted to steal his Pokemon only a million times during his coma adventures, appearing to be in her early 20s as he had always seen her.

Yet instead of being dressed up in some lame Team Rocket uniform or singing some stupid theme song, she was dressed in almost rags, her face dirty and looking like she had seen better days.

"I'm going to pulverize you and teach you a lesson street filth," Her opponent called with a sneer.

Jessie appeared nervous, but countered back with, "don't count on it Ralph."

"This ought to be good," The guy who had invited him to watch said beside him, "that street filth is totally going to be shown her place. I'm surprised she even has any Pokemon."

As if to make things even more lopsided in support, Ralph appeared to have an entire cheering section devoted to him with dozens of Pokemon in the stands behind him.

He doubted they were all his however, most likely owned by other members of the gym or perhaps even the gym leader himself.

From what he could tell however, some of the Pokemon there looked incredibly big and strong, some as tall as 7 or 8 feet and rippling with muscles.

It gave him a touch of fear thinking about facing just one of those Pokemon and he could imagine it being even worse for anyone actually battling them.

Ralph, her opponent let out his first Pokemon, a Nidoking, basically a huge hulking guy even bigger than his trainer and arrayed in a purple suit and with a large horn on his head.

He'd seen male Pokemon before of course. They were much rarer than female ones, but you could still find them occasionally. Only about 1 in 20 were male, but they were evidently sought after a great deal by female trainers for some reason.

"Hey!" Jessie complained, "this is my first gym battle. You're only allowed to use Class One Pokemon against me."

By now he'd learned enough about the Pokemon world to know that gyms and most trainers worked off of a class system. Since gym leaders inevitably had much stronger Pokemon than any average trainer could hope to beat they went off of a class system. A person trying to get their first badge would fight against only Class One Pokemon, basically Pokemon that were only at or below a certain level that would be challenging for them, but not too hard. If you were going for your second badge, you'd be fighting Class Two Pokemon. Then so on and so forth until you reached the Pokemon League and finally the Elite Four who were in a class of their own as far as their Pokemon were concerned.1

Her opponent only grinned and said, "I thought you were trying to get a job, not fight in a gym fight. I can use whatever Pokemon I want."

Jessie seemed unhappy about this, but didn't dare make any further complaint.

As for himself he was in a bit of quandary. After all the stuff that Jessie had put him through he wasn't exactly a fan of hers, but he tried to remind himself that this was a different Jessie and he shouldn't judge someone based upon who he had known them to be.

Finally Jessie pulled out a pokeball and threw it, causing an Ekans to appear.

Same Pokemon at least, Ash couldn't help but notice.

He also noticed that an Ekans was quite a bit more obviously less human than normal. Her top half looked totally normal, but her bottom half was that of a snake, that was slightly coiled.

The Ekans however dutifully slithered in to battle as best she could.

"Destroy that Ekans!" Ralph commanded his Nidoking, "Horn Drill!"

"Dodge it," Jessie told her Ekans.

Unfortunately her Ekans wasn't the fastest Pokemon as she tried to slither away.

Nidoking's horn on top of his head started spinning before it was immediately launched at Jessie's Ekans, nailing her right in the gut.

She went down and failed to get up.

"First hit, are you kidding me?" Ralph commented, "you're even more weak than I thought.

Jessie looked down at the ground forlornly before admitting, "I'm sorry, I have no more Pokemon."

"Hah, only one pathetic Pokemon," Ralph said with derision in his voice, "and you thought you might actually get a job. Well hey, maybe if you be my prostitute I'll pay you a few bucks and you can buy yourself a pokeball. If you're lucky you might actually get a half way decent Pokemon that way, you disgusting filth."

He let out a laugh and the other people in the gym laughed too.

"The way I see it, you're even more disgusting than I am," Jessie remarked.

Ralph didn't seem to even care as he told his Nidoking, "take out the trash for me won't you?"

The Nidoking immediately obeyed and went over and picked her up easily before he started taking her to the entrance.

"That poor woman," Misty commented angrily, "this gym is awful, I am so out of here and I'm going to go see if she needs help."

She ran off and he was forced to follow her out.

When he caught up with her, he found Misty just in front of the gym, approaching Jessie who appeared to be crying.

"Are you okay?" Misty asked her gently.

"I'm fine," Jessie tried to insist.

"I saw what happened in there, those guys were just jerks," Misty told her, "you're better off not working there."

"It's better than going hungry or having to eat garbage," Jessie told her, "let's face it, I'm pathetic."

"No you're not," Misty argued.

It admittedly felt a bit weird to see Misty comforting Jessie or for him to actually feel sorry for Jessie.

Misty turned towards him and told him boldly, "Ash, we should do something for her."

He looked over at Pikachu for advise.

"It could be a trick," Pikachu advised him.

That would certainly be something that the old Jessie might do, but somehow, this time he didn't feel that was the case.

This appeared to be just a poor, sad woman who needed some help.

"I think we should help her but I won't do it unless you're comfortable with it Pikachu," Ash claimed.

Pikachu certainly had the right to make such a decision, having been captured by Team Rocket countless times in their coma world.

His best friend seemed to be thinking it over.

"All right, fine but I'm keeping an eye on her," Pikachu insisted.

He nodded before going over to her.

"You want some food?" He offered her.

She looked at him hungrily before proving she still had a bit of pride before saying, "I don't want any charity."

That surprised him, but he could accept that people should have a little bit of pride.

"How about a little job for me then? I'll pay you in food," He suggested.

Perhaps he could have her wash his sleeping bag or something.

She looked dubiously at him and at his belt where he had most of his Pokemon stored.

"I'm sure you've already got plenty of Pokemon to do anything you need for you," She answered, "that's why I can't get a job. What with Pokemon so much stronger, faster, and hard working than humans the only chance you have is if you have plenty of strong Pokemon to work for you and I only have a weak Ekans."

"That's better than what I had only several weeks ago," Ash consoled her, "I'm just a newbie trainer."

"I'm 20," Jessie admitted, "I was supposed to start my Pokemon journey back when I was 16, but my family was never able to afford it and because we were poor I had to drop out of school to work and help take care of them. Shortly after my parents died I lost my job at the pokechow plant because they decided to have only Pokemon work there. I've been living on the streets ever since."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Ash said, feeling guilty.

He may not like Jessie, but this clearly wasn't the same Jessie he was used to, and no one deserved to feel like this.

"I wish I was a Pokemon," Jessie admitted wistfully, "something good and strong so I could get a job easily and wouldn't ever have to worry about where my next meal was coming from."

Misty looked over at him.

He guessed what she wanted.

"No way," He insisted.

"Why not?" She asked him angrily, "she clearly wouldn't be any worse off than she is now. At least that way she would have a chance."

Jessie seemed curious what they were talking about.

"What are you two talking about?" She asked them.

"Ash might be able to make you becoming a Pokemon a reality," Misty told her.

Jessie seemed skeptical but said, "if you really could do that for me...I'd be entirely grateful. I don't have any money, but I guess I could pay it off somehow."

This was pathetic, he thought, now really feeling sorry for her.

Finally he said, "all right, I'll do it, but not for money. I just want to make sure its what you really want. Afterwards there is no turning back."

"I'm sure," Jessie answered without any hesitation.

He pulled out a pokeball and threw it at her.

Instantly she disappeared inside.

"I'm sorry Pikachu," He told his best friend.

"It's okay Ash, I understand," Pikachu told him.

"I wonder what Pokemon she will be," Misty wondered aloud.

When he popped open her pokeball however he did not get an immediate answer.

She appeared to him with her top half looking much the same, but the bottom was very different, where her legs used to be was a thick white and blue tail.

Jessie surveyed her new body with wonder as she asked amazedly, "am I a snake like Ekans?"

He did not immediately know so he pulled out his pokedex to find out.

The pokedex blared out: "Dratini, the small dragon Pokemon."

"I'm a Dratini?" Jessie exclaimed in surprise as she attempted to make a leap of what he supposed was joy...which failed miserably as she then fell back down and failed to keep upright with her new tail, hitting her face against the ground in the process.

"I'm sorry," Ash apologized, "I suppose you might not have wanted to lose your legs."

"Are you kidding?" Jessie questioned him excitedly, "this is great! Do you realize how rare Dratini are?Besides their evolutions are incredibly strong Pokemon, assuming I get that far."

"You'd need some training up then I suppose," Misty observed.

He could already see where this was going and while he was hesitant, he felt like it was the right thing to do to at least offer.

"That would mean I'd have to offer you a choice," Ash answered, "I can simply release you and you can try and find work or another trainer, or you can come with us and I'll try to train you up a bit."

It would be a bit of sacrifice for him, and she would certainly take some work, but having such a potentially strong Pokemon in his party would benefit him immensely.

Jessie seemed to mull this over before saying, "I'll go with you then if you don't mind."

He looked over at Pikachu as if to see if she was all right with that.

Finally she nodded back, although still a bit wary, not that he could blame her.

After talking to Jessie a bit more, he zapped her back into her pokeball to get to know his other Pokemon.

"So where to now girls?" He asked Pikachu and Misty.

"We should just go," Misty urged, "I'm still mad about what happened at that gym."

"All right," He agreed, "but we'll have to come back when my reservation is. Hopefully that should be enough time to beat all the other gyms."

"No way you should be able to do it that quickly," Misty commented, "the only trainer I know of whose ever gotten that many badges that fast is Cynthia."

"Cynthia?" He asked.

"I suppose she isn't as well known in Kanto," Misty observed, "however she's famous elsewhere. She's the current Champion there."

He honestly did know who Cynthia was, but was surprised to hear her name mentioned.

What he did know however was that if what he had seen in his coma was any indication...

"Well I guess I'll just have to match her then," Ash claimed, "I'm going to be a Pokemon master in no time."

"Is that so?" A voice called.

He hadn't realized anyone was listening to their conversation.

As he turned to look at who had said it, he looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place him.

He was about medium height and had spiky red hair. However it was the expression on his face that looked familiar.

"I'm Ash," He greeted, hoping to learn the identity of the man.

"I'm Ritchie," The man said.

Ash remembered now just where he'd seen him before.

In his coma world he'd once befriended and then battled him in the Pokemon league.

Ritchie looked older. A lot older as a matter of fact. Ritchie if he had to hazard a guess was in his early thirties.

Next to him was a girl that looked like she could be Pikachu's sister, only older at around Ritchie's age and she appeared to be very heavily pregnant.

"Every beginning trainer seems to think they are hot stuff and their journey will be easy," Ritchie claimed, "then they have reality set in. Pokemon training doesn't happen super fast. It takes years of dedication and hard work and even then almost nobody ever gets to the Pokemon league. Most end up retiring long before then which is probably the smart choice. There are simply much better things in life than Pokemon battling."

"It's still great," Ritchie's Pikachu pointed out.

"Of course," Ritchie agreed, "I think you'll agree with me though in what I was getting at referring to better things, my love."

Ritchie put a hand onto her swollen pregnant stomach tenderly.

She smiled back at him and then kissed him which he returned.

He knew that trainers often got together with their Pokemon but this was the first time he'd actually so openly witnessed it.

"So are you a trainer then?" Misty wanted to know.

"When I say that pokemon training is a long and difficult road I speak from experience," Ritchie explained, "foolish it may be, but it's what I love. Still I would have quit long ago had it not been for my pokemates encouraging me."

"I've always known you could do it honey," His Pikachu told him.

"I've had a lot of luck and wonderful Pokemon," Ritchie praised, "however I still have a long way to go. I've still only got 6 badges although I hope to get the other two before the Pokemon league starts again in a year's time."

"Good luck then," Ash told him respectfully.

"Thank you," Ritchie answered, "I also don't wish to discourage you Ash, I'm just trying to give you a heavy dose of reality."

"I appreciate the advice," Ash answered.

Ritchie thought for a moment and then said, "say, why don't we have a practice battle?"

Ash looked over at Ritchie's Pikachu dubiously. Attacking pregnant women probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Ritchie laughed at that.

"Oh no, I didn't mean against her. Even pregnant she would easily defeat any Pokemon you have. I was talking about using one of my Class One Pokemon against one of yours."

"Okay," Ash agreed. That sounded much more reasonable.

Truth be told this was his first trainer battle in this world. There really hadn't been any other trainers to fight against before.

He tried to think of who to use.

Pikachu was the most obvious choice and his strongest Pokemon. The only downside was that Ritchie already knew all about how Pikachu fought from having one of his own.

One of his other Pokemon he was sure could put up a strong fight as well however.

He supposed it would depend on who Ritchie chose.

"I shall give you the advantage of going second in choosing your Pokemon," Ritchie announced as he let his Pokemon out of his pokeball.

To his surprise, it was a girl that most people probably would have mistaken for a Pikachu.

However he was already too familiar with the species to think that.

"A Pichu," Ash guessed.

"Very good," Ritchie replied sounding impressed, "you aren't allowed to catch them or use them in battle in Kanto due to law restrictions out of concern for child abuse issues but its a bit different when the Pokemon is your own daughter."

"Your daughter?" Ash questioned.

"This is my daughter Celeste," Ritchie introduced.

"Hi," Celeste said happily.

From what he could tell, he would guess that she was about 8, which would make her by far the youngest Pokemon he had ever fought against.

Another anti-child abuse law in Kanto was that you weren't allowed to battle or catch any Pokemon below the age of 16. All of his Pokemon were at least that age.

Ritchie held up Celeste's pokeball and Ash realized that it was actually somewhat different from an ordinary pokeball.

"This is a parent ball," Ritchie explained, "it's special in that only Pokemon that are your own children can be held inside them. I own Celeste in the sense that she is my daughter, but I'm only allowed to use her in battle if she wants to and with her mother's permission. I also have to raise her right like any parent should, but when she turns 16 I have to release her and let her try and make a start on her own life."

He supposed that made sense.

"I want to be a Pikamommy," Pikachu admitted, "not right now, but someday."

"You could be as long as Ash here let you," Ritchie said, "either by letting you get with another Pokemon or with Ash himself if you and he so chose. Celeste for example is my 4th daughter with Sparky here, one of my pokemates."

Currently Ash was still trying to wrap his head around Pikachu having children, much less the other stuff.

"How do you manage to care for your children?" Pikachu wanted to know.

"They have their moms to do a great deal of the work," Ritchie replied, "also they stay inside pokeball world for most of the time. Still I don't think they'd have had so many if it wasn't for the fact that pregnancies take only a month in comparison to a human pregnancy at 9 months."

"Daddy, are you done explaining now?" Celeste asked Ritchie, "I want to battle!"

"All right Celeste, I know," Ritchie said before turning to him, "Celeste may look young, but she's still got plenty of experience and she is her mother's daughter."

"That means I'm really strong and smart," Celeste added, shamelessly bragging a little.

Ash had to shake his head and instead focus on the task at hand: battling.

He certainly did not want to lose no matter if his mind was preoccupied or not.

While this certainly brought a new dimension to things, he felt that his choice of Pokemon now wouldn't be changing.

"Pikachu," Ash suggested, "I choose you."

Celeste grinned.

"Wrong choice," Celeste answered, "I battle my mommy all the time, who is way stronger than you and also a Pikachu. I'm going to beat you."

Nevertheless Pikachu got into the fight.

"Use thundershock," Ash commanded his Pokemon.

"Dodge it," Ritchie told his daughter.

Celeste barely managed to dodge Pikachu's attack, missing her only be inches.

"Charm," Ritchie then said.

Celeste then put on a very cute face, she admittedly looked absolutely adorable.

Pikachu appeared to be a bit affected by it.

"She looks too young and cute Ash," Pikachu pointed out, "I don't know if it's a good idea if I battle her."

Of course then Celeste followed up with a thundershock of her own which hit Pikachu.

Suddenly Pikachu wasn't nearly as sympathetic to her.

"All right, that's it little girl, you're going down," Pikachu argued.

With a burst of speed she zipped forward and at the same time unleashing a thundershock.

This time Celeste got nailed with it and it took a second for her to recover, having to shake her head a little.

"You're strong," Celeste claimed.

"Thanks," Pikachu said as she let out another thundershock.

"Celeste, start moving around more!" Ritchie suggested to his daughter.

Celeste tried to do so, but Pikachu was able to move just as fast as her.

Still she managed to dodge the next couple thundershocks that Pikachu hit her with, but the third nailed her.

She went down, struggling to get up but finally collapsed and fainted.

"Yes!" Ash cheered.

"Good job," Ritchie congratulated, "it might make Celeste unhappy that she lost, but I think it might also be good for her as a learning experience."

It occurred to Ash just why Ritchie was doing this in having his daughter battle. He just wanted to make sure that she was strong and more capable of surviving the world by the time she came of age and in the experience she gained from Pokemon battling would help her with that. It showed Ritchie's love for his daughter...even if it was a bit weird that his daughter was a Pokemon.

"I got lucky," Ash insisted, "if she hadn't gotten paralyzed the battle might have gone very different."

"Nevertheless, I congratulate you, I wish you well on your Pokemon journey," Ritchie told him.

"Thanks you too," Ash replied.

One battle down, a million to go Ash thought. At least he was off to a good start.

Next stop: Pewter City, the home of Brock.

According to Professor Ivy, a man named Brock was indeed the gym leader there, and which was a good sign that it was the same Brock.

Just how and if Brock had changed however he'd just have to find out.

1. One thing that bothered me is how a trainer should even be expected to beat such an experienced gym leader with such obviously skilled Pokemon. Otherwise they shouldn't have been selected as gym leaders in the first place. The only way I could figure it was if the gym leader had many Pokemon at many different levels and chose based upon the skill and experience of the trainer and his Pokemon challenging him.

Please Review!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Ash grinned as he gazed upon the city that lay before him.

He'd finally made it to Pewter.

Having spent plenty of time training and battling trainers in and around Viridian Forest for the last little while, actually getting here was welcomed.

He could only hope that he had prepared enough, Brock would most assuredly be tough to beat.

"Ready girls?" He asked both Misty and Pikachu.

"Ready," Pikachu instantly agreed with a smile.

"Is it the same as when we...when you..." Misty tried to say.

He'd finally told her about the alternate universe he'd come from.

It was a shock to be sure and she likely would have thought him crazy and ran for the hills had Pikachu not been there to back him up.

While an adjustment, she'd still managed to become good friends with him again, especially due to all the time they were spending together.

He knew if he was to beat Brock, he'd need to rely upon Misty being the best water Pokemon he had. He'd focused a great deal on her gaining valuable experience over the last little while.

As they entered the city, the city didn't appear all that different although it was definitely larger, the buildings larger due to the increased family sizes.

After healing up at the Pokemon Center they headed to the gym.

Like the Viridian one, there was a person standing in front of it with a calendar, only this time it was a girl. What shocked him about her was that she looked like a female version of the Brock he knew, around the same age and everything.

"I'm here to challenge the Gym Leader," Ash told her.

She grinned and said, "well then you've come to the right place. I'm Brock."

His eyes bugged out as he asked incredulously, "you're Brock?"

Brock was a girl!

"Yep," She agreed, "you want to challenge me now?"

Just when he felt like his head was going to explode however, he heard another voice, this one a deep, masculine one.

"Pyrite stop messing with the new challengers," They said.

He turned to look and spotted a man in perhaps his late 30s to early 40s, who looked like she could be the girl's father...which would make him..."

"I'm sorry about my daughter, she likes to mess with people sometimes, as if they'd let a 14 year old be a gym leader,1" He said with a laugh, "I'm the real Brock."

Ash looked up at him, amazed to see his old friend...and just how old and big he had gotten.

Brock looked huge and powerful, like the rock Pokemon that he used.

"Wow!" He couldn't resist saying aloud.

Brock laughed again and said, "hah, you sounded like some of my wives and Pokemates after sex...which usually means I did a good job."

"Your wives and Pokemates?" Ash questioned.

For as long as Ash had known Brock he was girl crazy...and always got rejected by girls when he came onto them.

This Brock clearly didn't have that problem.

"In addition to being a gym leader I'm also a Pokemon breeder," Brock explained, "which means I try to ensure that both Pokemon and human women are able to have children either through intercourse or through sperm donation. I've fathered hundreds of children in this way. Some of their mothers have chosen to stay permanently with me as either my Pokemates or wives."

Admittedly Ash had wondered just how the population managed to sustain itself, now he was starting to get an idea.

No wonder Brock to appeared to be so happy.

"Sounds like an awful lot of child support payments," Ash observed.

Brock let out another booming laugh as he commented, "fortunately Breeders don't have to worry about that."

"How do you become a Breeder?" Pikachu asked.

Brock smiled as he admitted, "by being very good at what I do."

He seemed to be willing to say more but then Pyrite interrupted by saying, "I don't need to hear you brag about your sexual exploits, dad."

"All right," Brock agreed realizing he was talking in front of his 14 year old daughter, "well at any rate, I hear you want to challenge me?"

"Yes," Ash agreed, "when are you available?"

"Pyrite?" Brock asked.

Pyrite looked down at the calendar as she said, "you've got tomorrow open at 10."

"I can do that," Ash quickly agreed.

"All right," Brock said, "I would highly suggest that in the meantime you stick around in the gym and watch me battle other challengers."

"Aren't you worried we might glean too much about how to beat you?" Misty asked him.

Brock smiled grimly as he said, "trust me, you'll need all the help you can get. He was probably planning to use you huh?"

"Yeah," Misty had to say.

"I'm afraid Stonia, my Onyx might take it out on you," Brock replied, "she loves taking it out on Squirtles."

That did not seem reassuring.

After setting things up with Pyrite, they decided to go inside the gym and follow Brock's suggestion.

In a few minutes, a trainer came in to battle Brock.

She appeared to be around 18 as she let out her Vaporeon.

"A Vaporeon?" Misty exclaimed, "he'll beat Brock for sure.

Unfortunately it did not work out that way.

Brock let out Stonia, a girl with grey skin and a long stone tail instead of legs.

In less than a minute, Vaporeon was knocked unconscious after getting whacked by Stonia's tail and sent flying into a wall.

"Lucky hit," Misty muttered, not happy to have seen a fellow water Pokemon lose.

Yet as they watched throughout the day trying to maybe think of a decent strategy, Brock just kept on winning.

In fact he fought over a dozen battles and didn't lose a single one.

"I'm not liking are odds," Ash finally had to admit grimly as he watched Brock pummel another trainer with his Pokemon.

"We can't lose though," Misty insisted, "we'll have to wait another 3 months to challenge him again if we lose tomorrow."

"I just don't see it," Ash was forced to conclude, "Brock is just too good and you're only a Squirtle even if you are a great Pokemon."

"I'm not that far away from becoming a Wartortle," Misty defended.

In retrospect it probably would have been a good idea to wait to challenge...except he was feeling extremely pressured for time for some reason as if he had to do it now or else.

"We've only got one day, less than a day in fact," Ash answered, "we wouldn't be able to get you enough experience in that time."

"Couldn't we cancel?" Pikachu suggested.

"A cancel would be considered a forfeit which would count as a loss," Misty explained, "they tend to take cancellations seriously. We were lucky to even get in as soon as we did."

"It's probably because Brock keeps beating all the challengers so fast," Ash observed.

"Why don't I fight then?" Pikachu suggested, "maybe break the sprinkler system again or something."

He had admittedly, accidentally of course done that for his first battle with Brock in his coma world.

"No, that would be pretty much cheating, I'd want to win fair and square," Ash insisted.

Now dejected as they tried to think of a way to win, they left the gym.

He was feeling really worried himself. He simply did not want to have to wait 3 more months. Maybe Misty would find a way to win or some other miracle would take place but it looked grim.

Just as they were walking down a street, Pikachu pointed at a poster excitedly as she exclaimed, "look the Pewter City Museum has a new fossil exhibit. Can we go Ash?"

He was about to reply that they simply didn't have the time, but looking at Pikachu's face, he decided it might be a good idea. They wouldn't be able to get much training in especially without a good enough strategy in mind and perhaps this might make his Pokemon feel better and less dejected.

"All right," He agreed finally.

As they neared the museum however he spotted something big coming right towards them.

Make that huge.

It was a woman, only far bigger than he had ever seen, over 20 feet tall with dark grey skin and a huge horn on her head.

A Rhydon, he realized, a giant Rhydon in fact. He knew even most of the biggest Pokemon never really got any bigger than just a tall human, but this woman was massive, her chest alone the size of beanbag chairs, which could only mean that not only was she big but also very, very strong.

His surprise however nearly led to him getting run over by her had not several much smaller Pokemon tried to slow her down, a couple of Arcanine and a Victreebel.

The Rhydon however after they tried to hit her with their attacks, merely knocked them aside.

"Stop that Pokemon!" He heard a voice behind them, "she's getting away with the Mew fossil!"

As he looked he realized it was a scientist along with several of his colleagues and a police officer, desperately sending out their Pokemon to take the Rhydon down.

"We should help," Pikachu urged.

"How are we supposed to deal with that thing?" Misty argued, "even those scientists and police can't manage it."

Indeed nearly a dozen Pokemon now littered the ground, having been knocked unconscious by the rampaging giant Rhydon, who was knocking out Pokemon like flies with its huge arms or merely kicking them aside.

One unlucky Vileplume in fact got stepped on, a massive footprint surrounding her unconscious body, but she appeared to be okay, her Pokemon powers protecting her.

The Rhydon itself, only slowed down appeared to be weakened considerably was still managing to make it into the nearby mountains.

If she did, she almost assuredly would get away, probably by boring a tunnel directly into the mountain side using her huge horn.

"We have to try something," Pikachu urged.

Pikachu was right, he thought as he tried to come up with a plan.

He released all of his Pokemon at once to join the fray, their Pokemon powers should allow the Rhydon to not be able to kill them but at least provide a distraction.

Most of them proved to really only be cannon fodder however.

He winced as his Pokemon began to get swatted and downed almost as soon as they entered the fray, Pidgey closely resembling a missile as she was sent to the ground.

Jessie was the bravest and perhaps the most foolish, wrapping around one of the Rhydon's legs and holding on for dear life.

Yet when the Rhydon finally managed to shake her free, it was all over.

Suddenly the only Pokemon left were Pikachu, his mom, Professor Ivy, and Misty, who were forced to remain at a distance.

As he turned to look, the scientists and the police officer could only look on, evidently all of their Pokemon already wiped out.

Just as it looked like the Rhydon would get away however, Ash had a great idea.

"Misty," Ash called, "try to aim a water gun at the Rhydon's nose, Pikachu and Delia you do the same with your electric and fire attacks."

All 3 of his Pokemon hastened to do so.

Misty got her water into its nose first, but followed closely by Pikachu's electric attack, increased by the water it was traveling with. Even with rock hard skin that made her impervious to electricity, the Rhydon did not have the same protection inside its nose, especially while water was inside it.

Delia's fire attack got there soon after, effectively boiling the water.

The Rhydon roared in absolute pain.

His Pokemon however, growing more confident continued to lay on their assaults to her nose as she tried desperately to protect it.

"Now Ivy," He commanded Professor Ivy, "use vine whip on her eyes."

She did as he suggested, her vines effectively pushing right into her eyes.

It was a bit of a low move that he'd never use in competition but for this he reasoned it was okay.

Unable to see where she was going or smell for that matter, the Rhydon ended up stumbling and falling onto the ground.

To his amazement, that was the last straw for the beleaguered Rhydon as it was knocked unconscious.

Before they could yell in triumph however, the Rhydon disappeared in a zap of red.

"Where did she go?" One of the scientists asked in confusion.

She had disappeared inside of a Pokeball it looked like, but if so where was her trainer?

There appeared to be no one else.

As they tried to figure it out however, he was now distracted by something else.

There was now a bright white glow around Delia, Misty, and Professor Ivy.

All 3 of them were evolving at the same time! He realized in surprise.

They had however managed to beat an incredibly powerful Pokemon however to do so, a very very high leveled and giant Pokemon at that.

Each of them began to change before his very eyes, growing and acquiring new characteristics, Misty's shell on her back became a bit larger along with her body, Professor Ivy's bulb partially bloomed, and Delia's flame on her tail got bigger and hotter.

Once they were done changing, Misty exclaimed in wonder as she looked over her new body, "We're so much bigger now."

They really weren't all that big, in fact he was still taller than all 3 of them but being so short he could see why she might feel that way.

"I feel like I finally get used to being a Charmander and now this," His mom observed, "the good news is I'm hotter."

While she was making a joke about her flame tail, he had to admit she had a point. All 3 of them were now more attractive and curvacious, their assets having grown along with them.

He decided to have his pokedex get new info on them.

Name: Delia

Species: Charmander

Height: 5'6

Hair: reddish-brown waist length

Breast Size: DD cup

Level: 16

Name: Ivy

Species: Ivysaur

Height: 5'5

Hair: Black waist length

Breast Size: DD cup

Level: 16

Name: Misty

Species: Wartortle

Height: 5'4

Hair: Orange waist length

Breast Size: DD cup

Level: 16

Before he could really talk to his Pokemon over their evolutions, he heard one of the scientists exclaim: "The Fossil! It's broken!"

Ash went over to look as he saw the Mew Fossil, currently lying in pieces from when the Rhydon had either dropped it or broken it as it fell.

Only just now another scientist entered the fray, this one a young woman who actually seemed rather familiar to him but he couldn't place why.

"What exactly happened here?" She demanded, sounding like she was in some position of authority, "Seymour?"

"I was just doing a museum tour," Seymour explained, "when that giant Rhydon came in and blasted a huge hole in the wall."

"Giant Rhydon?" The woman asked, seeming to be struggling to believe it.

"It's true," One of the other scientists assured her, "it was enormous, like 20 feet tall. Besides look at the footprints."

The woman glanced down and was surprised to see the large footprints in the dirt.

"She tried to steal the Mew fossil," Seymour continued, "of course I sounded the alarm and we were doing our best to try and take it down with our Pokemon but all we could manage to do was slow it down. If it hadn't been for this boy and his Pokemon over here..."

Seymour pointed to Ash.

"It was nothing," Pikachu insisted as if it really was nothing, "I beat giant Rhydons everyday."

The woman looked over at them before asking, "so where is the giant Pokemon now?"

"We don't know madam," The police officer admitted, a woman, but clearly not Officer Jenny, "she seems to have just disappeared and we're still trying to locate her. From what I can tell however she had an owner and was recalled inside her pokeball. The problem is we didn't see any trainer."

The woman continued to ask questions, clearly unhappy about the broken state of the fossil and the escaped giant Pokemon, but at least glad to see everyone was okay.

He however was not listening as the police officer decided to talk to him and get his statement.

When she was done talking to them however the woman went up to him and asked, "if it's all right with you, I'd like to talk with you as well."

"Well I kind of need to take my Pokemon to the Pokemon Center," Ash urged.

"I've got a Pokemon healing machine and a Chansey back at the museum," She suggested, "why don't you come with me?

Reluctantly he followed her, without her saying a word.

Finally they entered the museum and proceeded into the personnel only area, where indeed a healing machine was available.

Daisy even had a Chansey to go with it. While healing machines were great, combined with a Chansey they were just about as effective as you could get.

It made him want a Chansey of his own.

All of his Pokemon were put inside the machine while she talked to him.

"I feel that some thanks should be in order," She observed.

"I'm only sorry I wasn't able to save the fossil," Ash answered, "and let the Pokemon escape. In fact I can't think of anything I really accomplished."

"Still it was very brave, foolish but brave," She insisted.

"So who exactly are you?" Pikachu wanted to know, the first out of the machine.

The woman smiled as she admitted, "I'm Professor Oak."

His eyes went wide as he stared at her. So that was why she was so familiar, but how could Professor Oak be...?"

He tried to imagine an old man like Professor Oak as a beautiful young woman but couldn't.

"You're not Professor Oak," Pikachu insisted.

She however did not seem bothered by this as she admitted, "I suppose I'm not The Professor Oak if that's what you mean. The famous Professor Oak happens to be my grandfather. I'm Daisy Oak."

Daisy pointed to a picture lying on her desk with her currently standing next to the same Professor Oak he had known.

He felt better about that, although come to think of it Professor Ivy had told him about Professor Oak awhile ago. Evidently he had retired a few years back and left her in charge of his lab.

Come to think of it he also recognized Daisy. She was the sister of his rival Gary. In this world, she was evidently a Pokemon researcher or scientist like her grandfather.

"You wouldn't happen to have a brother would you?" He asked.

She shook her head and said, "I have tons of sisters, but no brothers even though I know my father wanted one."

Misty however had a question for her as she asked, "so what about that giant Pokemon? I didn't know Pokemon could even be that big."

"Neither did I," Daisy (He had a hard time thinking of her as Professor Oak) admitted, "I mean I'd heard of a few unconfirmed sightings but nothing actually credible enough to prove. Usually just some drunk sailor or some guy with a tin foil hat on. This however with so many witnesses I'd say definitely proves the existence of at least one such Pokemon, but I couldn't even begin to explain how."

With all of this science stuff being discussed, he decided to release Professor Ivy while Daisy was still talking, who immediately jumped into the conversation.

"A growth serum or something perhaps?" She suggested.

"Possibly, but I haven't heard of anyone successfully doing it, not that it doesn't exist, I just haven't heard of it," Daisy answered.

"Neither have I," Professor Ivy replied.

Daisy studied her for a second before asking, "do I know you?"

Not wanting to reveal her true identity, she said, "I'm Ivy. Ash's Pokemon."

"Ivy the Ivysaur, seems like an appropriate name," She observed.

"I quite agree," Ivy replied, seeming to like both the name and her new evolution form.

"Anyway," Daisy said, "the appearance of this giant Pokemon will no doubt create shockwaves in the science community. It would be better if we had the actual Pokemon but still it will be a big thing."

"Why would they suddenly appear and so blatantly give themselves away like that?" Ivy asked her, "if more giant Pokemon are out there then it would seem to me they want to remain in hiding."

"I've considered that," Daisy told them, "while the Mew fossil was certainly a great find it wasn't worth all that much. Certainly not enough to take a risk like that."

"Maybe someone was trying to resurrect the fossil," Ash suggested.

After all in his coma world they could do that.

"I'm afraid that technology doesn't exist," Daisy explained, "I mean we've certainly tried but always been unsuccessful."

Ivy however seemed to take the comment more seriously as she suggested, "well humor us for a bit, let's say that someone did have such technology. Imagine what a Mew could do."

"Ah, you're referring to the Mew theory," Daisy realized.

"What's the Mew theory?" Ash asked.

"It's a theory that Mew is the ancestor of all Pokemon and humans," Ivy explained, "as such it has all of our DNA locked inside it. Theories beyond that believe that a Mew could learn any move, become any Pokemon, I've even heard some that claim that Mew could be a potential catalyst in changing humans into Pokemon."

That caught his attention.

Ivy however tried to backtrack, realizing why he was now suddenly very interested as she tried to say, "of course it is only a rumor, an uncredited one at that."

He however felt that there just might be something to that rumor.

At any rate, he chose not to discuss it further in front of Daisy as she moved on to talking about something else, some science stuff that he couldn't figure out, but was perfectly understandable to Professor Ivy.

In the meantime he was still thinking about the Mew theory, knowing it was somehow important but not knowing for sure why.

By the time they finally left however, Misty was already anxious and it wasn't about science or theories.

"Okay, while that was interesting I think what we really want to talk about is...we evolved!" Misty said.

"Yeah, I know," Ash agreed with a smile.

He released his mom so that she could have a part in the conversation.

"What did I miss?" She asked them once she had come out.

"Quite a lot, but we'll get you up to speed," Professor Ivy said.

"Okay then Professor Ivy," His mom began.

"Please call me just Ivy," Ivy asked of her, "I am after all an Ivysaur now."

She said this rather proudly as her partially bloomed flower on her back seemed to shake a bit in agreement.

"We should totally be able to beat Brock now," Misty insisted confidently.

"It gives us a better chance at least," He concluded, "Brock still won't be easy to beat."

"Ah, it'll be fine Ash," Pikachu said, "at the moment, I feel like I could beat him."

"Hey, just because we beat a giant Rhydon doesn't mean we should be too overconfident," Ash pointed out, "that Pokemon was already severely injured from taking on all those other Pokemon. We very easily could have lost."

"All that experience it gave us certainly helped though," Delia commented, "watch this."

She let out a burst of flame from her mouth causing him to back up a step. Suddenly getting a kiss on the cheek from his mom seemed more dangerous than it simply being embarrassing. Talk about hot lips.

"We should battle," Pikachu urged.

"Fine with me," Ivy replied.

Since his Pokemon were so eager to battle he had them battle each other, each testing out their new bodies and strength.

While he had a long way to go, he couldn't help but think he had a pretty good team going for him right now as he watched them.

They continued to practice for the rest of the day, with him opting to focus on Misty most of all however so that she would be ready for Brock and his Pokemon Stonia.

Just one hit with her stone tail and she could go flying.

When it finally got too dark to see, however, he had to call it quits and go to bed.

It was not until Misty was already asleep, quickly due to a long and tiring day for her that Pikachu asked, "Ash, are you okay that I didn't evolve like the rest of the girls?"

"Of course," Ash answered.

"Well they are so much stronger and prettier now and I just stayed the same," Pikachu pointed out.

"I thought you liked being a Pikachu," Ash said, "you always have."

"Yeah, I just want to be everything I can for you Ash," Pikachu replied.

"In my opinion Pikachu I love you just the way you are, and I think you're very pretty," Ash said.

It was a totally friendly I love you but he still meant it. Having gone through so much with Pikachu how could he not love her?

"Thanks," Pikachu replied, sounding very pleased as she snuggled in closer, "I love you too Ash."

He was about to reply when suddenly there was a blinding light and he found that he was no longer in his sleeping bag.

Instead he was back where Arceus had taken him after he had "died" after being in his coma.

"Hello Ash," He heard a voice say.

As he turned to look, there was Arceus standing there, still in her human form.

He bowed respectfully before asking, "what can I do for you?"

"I'm here to tell you a few more things," Arceus explained, "by now you should have faced the giant Rhydon and won as well as learned about the Mew theory."

"I knew there was more to it!" Ash burst out.

"Indeed," Arceus agreed, "the Mew theory is indeed correct. Mew was the first Pokemon I created, ancestor of both humans and Pokemon alike. A Mew also contains a way to change any human into a Pokemon, an ability I opted to give to you in order to combat the same desire by evil men who wish to ruin everything that is most precious in life. While you I know will use it for good, they will do it for evil, attempting to capture and enslave the populace and force them to do their bidding. Sound like anyone you know?"

"Team Rocket," Ash realized.

"You are again correct," Arceus answered, sounding pleased he had guessed it himself, "their leader sent that Rhydon in order to get the Mew fossil, had he succeeded he would have been one step closer to achieving his goal of turning everyone into his Pokemon slaves other than members of his own organization. Fortunately the fossil was destroyed because of your efforts and now he must find another way."

"What way is that?" Ash asked.

"He'll need to find another Mew," Arceus told him, "however without any more fossils he'll have to try and capture a living one."

"Are there any more Mews?" Ash asked.

Arceus hesitated before saying, "there is one. It will be your job to find them and prevent them from ever being captured by Team Rocket."

"I wouldn't even know where to look," He pointed out.

"For now your path is quite clear," She responded, "you must get to the Pokemon league and become its champion. Only then will Mew be revealed to you."

"That's going to be really tough though," Ash argued.

Arceus winced as she said, "it gets worse. Unfortunately you also have only a year in which to do so."

"A year!" Ash said in alarm, "that's going to be just about impossible."

"Cynthia did it," Arceus said, "if you are to have any hope of succeeding, you will need to figure out how."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Ash asked.

"You're just going to have to figure that out yourself," Arceus told him, "I can't simply tell you everything. Besides what I've told you should be quite enough for you to think on already. Time to go."

He wanted to ask more, but again Arceus sent him back, with him still lying in the sleeping bag with Pikachu.

"Sorry I left Pikachu if you were worried," Ash told her.

"You didn't leave though Ash," Pikachu said sleepily as she continued to hug him tightly, "you're right here with me where I like you."

He supposed it made sense, Arceus having the power to stop time and all.

Deciding to explain what he had learned to Pikachu in the morning when she wasn't so sleepy, he tried to get some sleep himself, even as he reflected on the monumental task that now lay before him.

1. Shouldn't gym leaders I don't know...be older and have more experience than just a teenager?Of course once again, they did that to appeal more to the child demographic they were targeting. At any rate in this story all of the really young gym leaders will have their ages increased to be actually reasonable.

Please Review!


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: The trick gender bending in the last chapter was mainly done just because of the many people worried about me making Brock or Professor Oak girls. Personally just so you know I feel the same way nor will I be changing any male characters into female ones in this story, except for possibly Pikachu since there is some debate that she is potentially male with arguments for either side. However since it's still debatable, I chose to have Pikachu be a girl as I've always seen her as one. Thank you.

Chapter 8

Ash had done everything he could in preparing for Brock. Now it was all up to fate and Misty.

Misty as she walked alongside him seemed to realize just how important she was. This was her moment, her time to shine or fail.

However despite the pressure she appeared confident, carrying her newly evolved body as if she was in total control and unconcerned.

"You ready?" He asked her as they approached the gym.

"As I'll ever be," She answered.

As they walked into the gym, he had to face a junior gym trainer first with his Pokemon before he could actually challenge Brock.

He used Ivy to take the junior trainer and her Geodude out and then moved on to Brock.

Brock was waiting for him.

"I Ash Ketchum, challenge you to a battle for the rights to your gym badge," Ash declared.

"I accept your challenge," Brock agreed, "I'll be using my Onyx Stonia."

"Then I'll use my Wartortle Misty," Ash answered.

Brock let out his Pokemon, the girl Onyx giving a rather determined look at Misty.

Misty sent back a look of her own as if to show she wasn't intimidated by her.

As soon as the battle began, Onyx rushed Misty, probably hoping for a quick and easy knock out.

Unfortunately for her, Misty managed to dodge it and leap out of the way.

"Just be patient Stonia," Brock warned his Pokemon, "a rock Pokemon learns to be patient, yet strong."

A sound mantra, but not one he or Misty was going to employ, Ash thought.

"Water gun!" He commanded Misty.

She let loose a spray of water, hitting Stonia in the face.

Stonia certainly seemed weakened by the attack, but was still keen on going.

"I got this Brock," Stonia insisted as she rushed in, trying to swipe her tail directly into Misty.

Misty got nailed and sent flying, but she managed to break her fall by letting loose a stream of water at the ground just before impact.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked her.

"I'm fine," Misty insisted as she managed to get up.

"Go for another water gun," Ash suggested.

"Will do," She replied going in for another attack.

This time however Stonia dodged it before going after her.

"Stay back!" Brock commanded his Pokemon.

Maybe Stonia just had rocks in her ears, but she didn't listen, ramming her head into Misty's chest.

He'd actually been hoping for this and Misty knew just what to do if it happened, she let Stonia hit her and then just held onto Stonia's head as best she could.

Misty then let loose another water gun directly onto Stonia's head.

At such close range, the water attack did some heavy damage, the water pressure enough to wear down her opponents thick exterior.

Stonia tried to shake Misty off, but Misty still managed to hold on until finally Stonia collapsed, having had all her energy wiped out.

Misty was panting, obviously exhausted, but still extremely pleased that she had won.

"I won!" She exclaimed as loudly as her remaining energy would permit.

"Good job," Brock said with a smile, not all upset that he lost, "it appears my Pokemon was too impetuous, likely from having won so much. I think this might help her be more cautious."

"Well Misty did most of the work, but I'm still glad we won," Ash claimed.

Brock gave him a funny look before admitting, "you know, the interesting thing is, I feel like I know you from somewhere, I just haven't been able to shake the feeling since I met you yesterday."

He was surprised but he only told him, "I guess I just have one of those faces."

"Perhaps," Brock answered, "well at any rate, I'd like to reward you with the Pewter City Gym Badge!"

He held out the small gym badge pin, and Ash decided, "why don't you go get it Misty? You've earned it."

Happily, Misty did as he suggested and went over and took it.

"Brock did you lose?" A woman asked from over the balcony of the stands.

He did a double take. It was a woman with dark skin and black hair like Brock's, but otherwise didn't look a thing like him.

Ash guessed that she was one of Brock's wives.

"I can't believe I missed it too," She commented, "you almost never lose."

"This would be my wife Lashonta," Brock introduced, "she would be my 5th wife and my 2nd human one."

She then smiled warmly at them and invited, "we should have you over for lunch."

"Agreed," Brock said, extending his own invitation, "come on."

"Let's go Ash!" Pikachu said happily.

"Alright," He agreed.

At least it would let him know more about Brock in this world.

He accompanied Brock and Lashonta back to their home which was just a couple blocks away.

Admittedly Ash was shocked by the size of the house. Obviously all the dwelling were a lot larger than normal, but this one was absolutely massive.

He soon found out why.

There appeared to be tons of women and children all running around all over the place, some human and some Pokemon.

Most of the Pokemon were rock Pokemon, but there was a scattering of other types as well.

Funnily enough this house actually reminded him of Brock's family in his coma world with all his younger siblings.

Except even that could not have prepared him for this. It was absolute bedlum.

When they got inside the kitchen, a Lickitung woman appeared to be dishing out bowls of soup to various members of the family.

The Lickitung woman kept her very long tongue inside her mouth, but when a small boy tried to sneak a cookie from the cookie jar, she hit his arm with it.

"Not until you've finished eating all your soup Jasper," She admonished, much to Jasper's disappointment.

Brock then came up to her and briefly explained about inviting them over.

She didn't seem at all bothered by it, although he supposed with all those mouths to feed already, a few more really wouldn't make much of a difference.

They ate their soup, which turned out to be a nice hearty stew with Pikachu and Misty talking to some of Brock's wives while Ash talked to Brock.

"I can't believe you manage to keep control of your family," Ash couldn't help but note.

"Well it does get kind of crazy a lot of the time but I wouldn't have it any other way," Brock replied as he looked around proudly at his huge family, "what about you then Ash? You got any aspiration of maybe having a family of your own?"

"Eventually," Ash answered, "although I really hadn't given it much thought."

Brock leaned in and said, "well between you and me, I'm pretty sure that Pikachu of yours likes you and I wouldn't be surprised if you like her back."

"Likes me?" Ash questioned.

"Looks like you're still in the denial stage," Brock observed, "trust me it goes away fast. One moment you're getting your first Pokemon then bam...you have several kids together, I've seen it happen many times."

"Is that what happened to you?" Ash asked him.

"Sort of," Brock explained, "truth be told I wasn't really all that good around girls when I was young. I just spent all my time Pokemon training and battling. Of course then some of my Pokemon decided to help me out... and well...let's just say the help worked a little too well."

"I can't imagine," Ash said, "I mean Pikachu and Misty have always been my friends and..."

"That's even better," Brock replied, "sometimes its hard for me to keep up with all the members of my family but I do the best I can. I'm really just trying to counsel you as I can see you how you might become a bit popular with the ladies as well one day. From what I can tell you're a great trainer with a lot of potential."

"Thank you," Ash said gratefully, not sure what else to say.

"So where will you go now?" Brock asked him curiously.

"Cerulean City I guess," He answered.

"Well if you're going to go that route," Brock said, "you're going to need to pass through Mt. Moon. You might want to go right through the mountain then as quickly as possible and during the day time. The Clefairy can get a little moon crazy if you know what I mean."

"Moon crazy?" Ash questioned.

Brock glanced around at some of his kids nearby and said, "I don't think I'd better explain what it is in front of the kids."

"Gotcha," Ash said, not entirely sure what Brock meant, but guessing that it was sexual in nature.

After talking a bit more, Ash decided to be on his way, and Brock and several of his family members wished them goodbye.

As they walked away, Pikachu asked, "how come you didn't tell Brock who we really were Ash?"

"It just didn't seem right," He told her, "this Brock seems very happy and evidently very busy. He doesn't need to go traipsing around the world like he did when we knew him, especially since it would take him away from his family."

Pikachu nodded before saying, "well I suppose that's true, but he probably would have been a big help."

"Well hey, I've already got all the help I need right now," Ash claimed as he put an arm around each of them.

"We do make a pretty good team don't we," Misty agreed.

"Yep, nothing can stop us," Pikachu replied, "next stop: Cerulean!"

"Well I guess we'd better be going then," Misty said.

For her their next stop would be a bit different. She'd have to confront her sisters about having turned into a Pokemon and she was still trying to figure out just what she would say.

He couldn't blame her. He was still trying to figure what he himself would say to them.

POKEMONPOKEMON

They spent the next several days traveling to Mt. Moon and got to the entrance late in the afternoon. While they could have pressed onward, they opted to stay and wait until early morning as Brock had suggested in order to get through the cave before nightfall hit again.

Yet just as he was getting to sleep, he heard a noise and then suddenly he saw someone put an arm over Pikachu's mouth.

He let out a yell, instantly awaking Misty as well as his other Pokemon, who while they were in their Pokeballs, could still recognize a cry for help and pop out on their own if they wished.

Before the intruder could blink, they were suddenly surrounded as his Pokemon closed in.

They released Pikachu and seemed to try and make a break for it, but Jessie had already wrapped her body around them and tripped them up.

"What's the big idea?" A woman's voice complained.

"I could say the same thing," Ash said as he got out of his sleeping bag with Pikachu.

"Who are you?" Jessie demanded.

"I'm Stinky," She answered.

"That sounds like a terrible name," Pikachu said.

"Well it's the name my master gave me all right," Stinky replied.

He took a moment to look over Stinky. She had purple, bubbly skin, was rather rotund with no real curves to speak of, and he had to admit, smelled horrible.

If he had to guess what kind of Pokemon, she was, he would say that she was a Koffing.

"Who's your master?" Misty interrogated her.

"That would be me," replied a familiar voice.

He turned to spot James of Team Rocket, looking the exact same as he was used to seeing him, Team Rocket uniform and all. At his side was a familiar Meowth."

"You should have just let Stinky take your Pokemon, it would have been a lot easier for you," James insisted, "now I'll have to take all of them since now I know just how valuable some of your Pokemon are."

He was currently looking over at Jessie the Dratini, who admittedly was rather rare and valuable as a Pokemon.

For once however Jessie was looking at him with disgust on her face, clearly not wanting to have anything to do with him.

"Yeah, we'll totally clean you out, now hand over your Pokemon," Meowth added.

"I already told you you weren't allowed to speak," James told Meowth with a scowl, "I own you got it?"

Meowth nodded.

"I just can't seem to get you to shut up," James said before turning his attention back to them, "well as I was saying, you'd better surrender now or prepare to fight."

"Meowth that's right!" Meowth couldn't resist saying much to James' annoyance.

James took out about 30 pokeballs and released them all at once using some sort of button device.

To his surprise, out came out around 30 more Koffing that very closely resembled Stinky.

"Hey you can't have more than one Pokemon of the same type," Misty pointed out.

"I'm a criminal remember?" James said with a grin, "the rules don't apply to me and I've got my own way around them."

"Well, it doesn't matter," Ash told his Pokemon, "go knock out all those Koffing."

The good thing was they all appeared relatively weak so he was hoping he and his Pokemon could take care of them. Besides if James was anything like he was before, he wouldn't be much of a challenge."

"Use smog!" James commanded his Koffing.

Each of them let out a long stream of gas from their mouths as well as some from their butts.

While not lethal it was certainly foul smelling and it would certainly make it difficult to fight.

Pidgey began to try and gust it back towards the Koffing and keep it away from, but she alone couldn't manage to prevent it getting to them.

However it was his mom who saved the day as she let out a burst of flame from her mouth.

With that much gas in that amount of space, the fire reacted as it should, causing the air to light on fire, using the gas as fuel.

Suddenly all the Koffing practically ignited and burst into flames, getting knocked out at once.

By the time the air had cleared James was then the only one left standing and when he saw what had happened he tried to run.

However he did not get far before Jessie went and grabbed his leg with her tail and pulled him to the ground.

"I'm really starting to see the advantages of this thing," Jessie commented as she swished her tail.

"Well let's tie him up with a real rope," He suggested.

Before he could however, James and all the Koffing suddenly disappeared in a burst of red light.

"What just happened?" Misty questioned, "they were all just there and now they're gone."

"Yeah, and James was human, he shouldn't have disappeared like that," Pidgey argued, "I didn't sense anyone fly over and grab him real fast either."

He was about to suggest his own theory when he spotted one more figure now running away.

"They didn't all disappear," Ash told them, "Meowth is escaping!"

Each of his Pokemon rushed off after the fleeing Pokemon, with himself trying his best to catch up.

They followed him into the cave of Mt. Moon where he was fleeing.

Yet as soon as he entered, he was momentarily stunned as he saw a very interesting display.

Perhaps a couple dozen Clefairy were assembled, only they were all naked and female, except for one male Clefable who was also naked and standing in the center of them.

He looked away, now blushing, guessing what they were probably doing.

Some of the Clefairy seemed to notice them however.

"Ooh, come to join in the fun?" A Clefairy invited.

Since he was still looking away he could only hear rather than see what was going on, but one of them must have approached Meowth, because she said, "you're rather ugly, but lucky for you I'm not too picky."

A moment later she exclaimed, "eww...that's gross! You're a eunuch."

"Hey, I had an accident all right," Meowth complained.

Whatever happened next he wasn't sure, only that he heard a few punches and slaps land and Meowth making a few cries of pain.

Next thing he knew someone was escorting him back out.

"What just happened?" Ash demanded of Misty, who had taken him out.

"Well evidently that Meowth did something that made that Clefairy upset because she knocked him out cold before he disappeared as well," Misty admitted.

"It's certainly very strange, that disappearing act," Professor Ivy agreed as she seemed to be thinking really hard.

By now all of his Pokemon were now back out of the cave.

Pikachu was last as she asked him curiously, "Ash what were those Clefairy doing?"

"They were...well...having sex Pikachu," Ash admitted, now blushing.

"It sure looked like they were having a lot of fun," Pikachu noted, "can we do that?"

"No," He answered, now blushing even redder.

"Those Clefairy can get a little crazy at nights and in close proximity to Moon stones," Professor Ivy cautioned, "I wouldn't recommend any of us staying for one of their orgies even if it might be a bit...enlightening."

After talking for a bit more, none of them could really figure out what had happened to James or his Pokemon so they decided to call it a night.

Jessie however decided to linger for a bit to talk to him alone.

"That was him wasn't it," She asked of him, "that James you told me about."

By now he had told her about how he had known her in his coma world...with the extra assurance that he did not hold it against her, which he really didn't.

Jessie seemed to be nothing like her coma world counterpart.

Evidently she was still a bit bothered by it however.

"Yes," He was forced to admit.

"What if I end up...with him again and join Team Rocket?" She asked worriedly.

"Do you want to be with him?" He questioned.

"Absolutely not, He seemed absolutely disgusting to me," Jessie easily answered.

"Well then there you go," Ash said, "besides by now I have absolutely no doubt that you are truly a good person and would never join an organization like Team Rocket."

Jessie looked touched.

"Thanks Ash," Jessie said, seeming pleased by his response, "I really like being your Pokemon."

"Well I like having you," He told her.

She reached in and gave him a hug to his surprise, but which he returned.

He felt her tail touch the bottom part of his leg, feeling slippery but also warm.

Although she didn't seem to mind having a tail, he supposed she would be getting her legs and feet back when she became a Dragonite...if he ever managed to make it that far, he still had a long way to go.

Once they had broken from their hug, Jessie suggested, "I think I'd better stay out of my Pokeball and be near you tonight...you know...just in case James or one of those Koffing come back."

While he didn't think they would, he nodded, grateful for her desire to make sure he was kept safe.

The irony was certainly there, Jessie now helping to stop Team Rocket from trying to steal his Pokemon, but he still trusted her nonetheless.

Finally, he went back to bed with Pikachu, Jessie and Misty nearby as he then went and got some sleep.

Please Review.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

They hurried on through Mt. Moon the next morning and made it out before nightfall, much to Pikachu's disappointment.

She was admittedly rather curious just what those Clefairy had been up to but they hadn't stopped long enough for her to find out.

That being said, there was a lot about this world that she wasn't familiar with.

New world, new body, new people and Pokemon, and she was still trying to figure it out.

At least she had Ash. He was her best and oldest friend and she didn't know what she would do without him. They pretty much did everything together, with her right by his side.

However he had been acting very strangely ever since they had gotten to this world, seeming evasive and distant at times.

As for her, her feelings were rather strange too for him and she found herself enjoying looking at him, his hair, his butt, even the bulge he sometimes had in his pants which he frequently got sometimes when they woke up in the morning.

That night however, Ash's mother decided to have a little talk with her as she pulled her aside away from the campfire and the other Pokemon and Ash.

"Hey Pikachu," His mom greeted her, "I think I'd better have a little talk with you about something."

"Okay, what's up?" Pikachu answered brightly.

"I realize that in your world things might have been a bit different," She began, "and Pokemon might be a bit different as well."

"I know," Pikachu admitted, "I'm trying to learn as best as I can."

"I can see that," Delia agreed, "nor can I blame you for not knowing a lot of things, but I still think I'd better teach you some stuff that you might not know."

"Sure," Pikachu replied. She was happy to learn new things.

"You saw what those Clefairy were doing last night right?" Delia asked.

"Yeah," She admitted shyly, "but Ash really wouldn't tell me what they were doing, other than that they were having sex."

"Well that's what I wanted to talk to you about that," Delia replied, "after an incident like that...well I figured it was time...whether you or Ash want it or not."

"I really want to know about sex," Pikachu answered, not seeing why she wouldn't want to learn about it.

So she began to ask Delia questions although Delia looked a bit uncomfortable answering all of them.

It got a lot worse when she told Delia that she wanted to have sex with Ash, causing Delia to choke a bit.

Delia explained, a bit worriedly, "well before you do any of that, it is good to start a relationship first maybe become boyfriend and girlfriend, go out on dates and stuff."

"How do I make Ash my boyfriend then?" Pikachu wanted to know.

Delia still seemed uncomfortable but she still explained about dating and courtship and a whole bunch of other things, some of which she didn't fully understand, but tried to nevertheless.

"I'm aware that you really like my son," Delia told her, "and I think he likes you too, but I think you should try to just be patient."

Pikachu was rather disappointed so Delia decided to say, "it doesn't mean nothing will ever happen, but keep in mind Ash is having to do a lot of growing up in a very short space of time and you don't fully understand your own feelings or being more human is like either. So if you do decide to date at some point, I'd recommend you don't do too much too soon. Just me telling you this however is showing that I actually approve of you getting together eventually. You're obviously a good friend to him."

"Thanks," Pikachu said happily, "Ash is my very best friend and don't worry I'll do what you asked."

Delia breathed a sigh of relief before saying, "all right then, well then that's settled. Only problem now is I've still got to talk to Ash."

POKEMONPOKEMONPOKEMON

By the time they had reached Cerulean City, Ash was already rather confused.

The talk with his mom (that he had tried to avoid again by the way) had really messed him up and not in a good way.

He couldn't seem to stop thinking about it and it seemed to have awakened something in him, for example how he couldn't help but notice how good his Pokemon looked sometimes.

Like when Pikachu would twitch her tail, causing his eyes to be drawn to her butt.

Life was so much easier when all he had to worry about was battling, he thought.

As they entered the city however, they immediately headed for the Pokemon Center.

His Pokemon had been battling so much (often each other) that the healing machine that he was starting to worry it might break from too much use.

Obviously other trainers had to make do even without healing machines and just rely on time and Pokemon Centers, but he knew he simply didn't have such luxuries if he was to achieve everything he needed to in the short amount of time given him.

At the very least, while he was here he could depend on the good old Pokemon Center to heal his Pokemon, and he'd even heard that the one Nurse Joy in this world worked at the one in Cerulean and the Police Station had The Officer Jenny.

It had felt almost weird seeing other Nurses or other Police officers, so it would be nice to have that familiarity back.

To his surprise however as he entered he found a woman who appeared to be a Chansey standing there behind the healer's desk, but no Nurse Joy.

"Where's Nurse Joy?" Ash asked her.

"Haven't you heard?" Chansey asked him, "due to budget cut's Kanto just decided that we don't need humans to work as nurses or police officers since the Pokemon really can do all the work. They ended up laying them all off."

Dismay quickly crossed across his heart.

Such a thing to him just sounded wrong. Nurse Joy not be a nurse? Officer Jenny not be a police officer? Maybe Arceus was right and this world truly was going to pot.

"That's terrible!" Pikachu insisted, having about the same feelings as he did, "I ought to thundershock them."

"Yes it is very sad," The Chansey-woman answered sadly, "Nurse Joy was a great person and she'll be sadly missed. If you'd like however I could still heal your Pokemon."

"I'd rather have Nurse Joy do it," Ash insisted, "would you happen to know where she lives?"

"Just next door to the left," The Chansey admitted.

"Thanks," Ash replied as he went out with Pikachu.

They headed over to Nurse Joy's house and knocked on the door.

"Go away," A woman's voice came back gruffly.

"I need to see you Nurse Joy," Ash insisted.

I'm not a Nurse anymore," She replied, sounding like she was sobbing even as she said it.

He knocked on the door again, but this time there was no response.

Just when he was about to just give up, the door finally opened.

It was not Joy however who answered. Instead it was Officer Jenny, only she was wearing plain clothes.

While such clothes would have probably looked okay, jeans and a black t-shirt, she had food stains on it as if she didn't seem to care about her appearance, not at all like the Jenny he knew, who had always tried to keep good care of her police uniform.

In the background, Joy sat at a table.

"What do you need, I'm Joy's roommate," Officer Jenny told him just as gruffly as Joy had.

"I just heard about you both getting laid off and wanted to see if I could maybe help," Ash admitted.

It struck him just how dumb that sounded though, some random kid offering to help two down and out women, but it still didn't deter him.

To their credit, Jenny still looked grateful but told him, "I'm afraid there is nothing you can do. We tried fighting it but...well I'm afraid it's going to be tough and frankly I think they're probably right. Who really needs human police officers or nurses when you have Pokemon that can do the same work in a fraction of the time?"

"What are we supposed to do now though?" Joy said, "all I've ever wanted to do is heal Pokemon, and I can't even do that anymore."

"We'll find some work somewhere," Jenny urged, even though she did not look hopeful.

"Ash," Pikachu said, "do your thing."

"My thing?" He questioned.

"Turn them into Pokemon," Pikachu announced.

He thought about it for a second. He supposed they would probably be better off, they might even be able to become a Nurse and a Police Officer again.

They deserved to at least have the option.

"What if you could become a pokemon that can heal?" Ash asked Joy before asking Officer Jenny, "or a Pokemon fast enough to chase down criminals?"

All right, so he wasn't sure that's what they would end up as, but given who they were he couldn't imagine them ending up something else.

"While that would be nice, that's impossible," Joy pointed out.

"Actually it is possible," Misty announced, "I used to be human."

"No way," Jenny insisted, not believing her, "I've locked up criminals more sane."

"Well if we're telling the truth and we really can turn you into Pokemon then either we are wrong or you'll get a chance to be Pokemon," Ash replied.

Both women seemed to consider this, before Joy asked, "how long would it take? Would I need like surgery or something?"

"Nope," Ash answered, "it would only take a second and I would just have to toss this pokeball at you."

Jenny probably would have had a problem with something potentially dangerous, but simply tossing a pokeball at someone was pretty nearly harmless other than perhaps it hurting a little if it hit you.

Finally Joy nodded and he tossed the Pokeball at her.

Immediately she disappeared and he went to go pick up the ball to release her.

When he realized what Pokemon she now was, he grinned.

Joy as he had hoped was now a Chansey.

She was now shorter and shall we say pleasantly plump, but she at least now had a nice fat pair of breasts.

"How is this possible?" Joy asked in amazement, but not sounding unhappy.

"I have a certain power to be able to do that," Ash confessed, "I wanted to make sure that this is what you wanted before I did it, but now that you're Pokemon, you should be able to get your old job back."

She seemed to think about this before Joy declared, "Well you're my trainer now, I suppose it's up to you."

"Well I really could use a Pokemon that could heal all of my Pokemon," Ash confessed, "my Pokemon seem to need to be healed an awful lot."

"Then I suppose I'll stay with you then," Joy agreed after some thought.

Jenny still seemed to be thinking before saying, "do you think you could...do the same thing for me?"

"Of course," He answered, "although I have to admit I'm not sure what Pokemon you'll end up being."

"That's okay," She told him, "no matter what it would probably still make me better off than being human."

He couldn't help but think of his run in with that giant Rhydon and with James and Meowth. He had a bad feeling that he would be having to stop a lot more criminals.

"Trust me, I'm going to need someone with police experience," Ash told her.

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but that's fine with me if you think I'll be needed," Jenny answered.

He got out another pokeball and tossed it at her, before going to open it back up.

She appeared much the same only now much shorter and with a small furry tail. She was a Growlithe.

"All right, just the Pokemon I wanted to be," She commented as she tried running around the house.

Jenny was now very fast, he had to admit that.

While Misty and Pikachu talked with them, he surreptitiously checked their stats.

Name: Joy

Species: Chansey

Height: 4'6

Hair: red midback length

Breast Size: F cup

Level: 5

Name: Jenny

Species: Growlithe

Height: 4'2

Hair: blue midback length

Breast Size: A cup

Level: 5

Once he'd gotten things straightened out with both Joy and Jenny, he zapped them back into their pokeballs so they could get acquainted with his other Pokemon before heading over to the gym to see if he could make an appointment.

Admittedly he was feeling rather confident about the battle itself, even Misty had had to admit that her sisters had nothing that would give Pikachu any problems.

As for actually meeting Misty's sisters well...at least he was doing better than Misty to put it one way. Misty was rather nervous about admitting to her sisters that she was now a Pokemon.

That was certainly an issue. While the girls or women that he had turned into Pokemon seemed to be happy with their new state, it might be different for friends or family that they knew and how they might react.

They were however spared having to meet Misty's sisters as the young woman who met them at the door announced that they were still away competing in a swimming competition.

The good news is that due to a recent cancellation, she could get them in to battle them right after they came back in another 2 weeks.

He took the appointment before they headed away.

"What are we going to do in the meantime?" Pikachu asked him curiously.

"Well what do you want to do?" Ash asked her.

"We could go up to the lighthouse and the beach," Misty suggested, "I used to love going there, but I haven't been in ages."

"I want to go swimming," Pikachu replied.

"Well I guess that settles it," Ash agreed, "we'll go to the lighthouse.

He had a few fond memories of that place, having caught his Krabby there, met Bill, and seen a giant Pokemon.

After fighting that giant Rhydon, he was wondering if he might have another opportunity to see that giant Pokemon there again.

Over the next few days, they hurried on towards the lighthouse, yet when he got there, he was dismayed to find just an Electabuzz, who was working to keep the lighthouse lit.

She however directed them to the beach which was nearby.

When they got there, he released all of his Pokemon, who quickly went and got changed into swimwear.

He wasn't sure exactly how they had gotten any swimwear, but he supposed it would just have to be yet another mystery of Pokemon.

Besides the fact they were just wearing swimwear was causing him enough problems as it was.

All of his Pokemon were admittedly...attractive...something he was finding himself perfectly aware of at the moment.

Pikachu really did not help matters.

"Do you think I look good in this bikini Ash?" Pikachu asked him as she came up to him, currently wearing a yellow bikini.

He couldn't help but notice that the top was a bit too small for her...or maybe it was the fact that she was just showing more cleavage than usual.

She wasn't the biggest in that area as far as his Pokemon went anymore, but he was still drawn to them nevertheless.

"Um yeah," He answered finally, trying not to stare.

He turned away from her, but that did not make things any easier as he then ended up looking at Misty, who also looked pretty good in her dark blue bikini.

Finally he just looked at the ground until Pikachu and his other Pokemon had went to go play in the water, leaving him and just his mom close by.

His mom, he found to his relief, wasn't as much of a problem. She definitely looked good, but he was still his mom to him.

"It's okay to be attracted to them and look Ash," His mom commented.

"I don't know what you're talking about," He tried to deny, even though he was sure he was blushing.

"Yes you do," Delia responded knowingly.

He sighed and said, "Shouldn't you as my mother be wanting to prevent me from even knowing what a girl is until I'm 25?"

She laughed and said, "well hardly that late. I still think you should start dating."

"MOM!" He complained.

"Maybe Pikachu would be..." She tried to say.

"Stop it," Ash insisted.

For the last time, Pikachu was just his best friend...that's it.

Now choosing to ignore her he headed off into the water with his other Pokemon.

At any rate, they all did have a good time at the beach, him and his Pokemon even though he did find himself staring at some of his Pokemon now and again.

However they didn't seem to mind if they did in fact notice...which some of them probably had even if he didn't want them to.

That night they had a campfire and he was just about to bite into a smore when he heard a sound.

Like a low moaning of some sort.

It so surprised him that he ended up dropping the smore, but at the moment he really didn't care.

"The giant Pokemon!" Ash said excitedly as he rushed towards where he thought the sound had come from, his Pokemon in hot pursuit.

Of course, being human he was easily overtaken by everyone.

He eventually had to stop at the same cliff that they all had to, while they stared in awe at the huge figure that appeared to be approaching.

It was still too distant to see very clearly in the dark, but that would hopefully soon change.

"Do you think it's a giant Dragonite?" Jessie suggested hopefully.

"Well it sure looked a lot like one in my coma," Ash commented, "however seeing as that was a dream, I really have no idea just what it will be here."

However as the as yet unknown Pokemon approached, he was pretty sure it wasn't a Dragonite.

Finally she came into view, the lighthouse in the background lighting her up somewhat.

He and everyone else gasped in shock.

It was Lugia.

She was every bit as huge as she had been when he had seen her during his coma adventures, only she looked very humanlike, aside from an absolutely huge pair of white wings and a tail he could just barely see the end of swishing behind her.

She was arrayed in a mostly white and a little bit of blue dress that seemed to shimmer in the light and she had a very impressive figure, made only more impressive due to her size.

Just one of her breasts was bigger than his whole body and her black-blue hair fell to her waist.

He was however worried that she might get angry and attack them or something as she had done when he'd first met her in his coma, but instead she smiled real big and said, "Hi."

His Pokemon began to murmur, surprised to hear such a legendary and powerful Pokemon greet them like that.

Pidgey however, who looked like she was about to combust from sheer amazement at who she was looking at, bowed and said respectfully, "Oh great Lugia, ruler of birds, we are truly your humble servants. What is thy command?"

He supposed it made sense that Pidgey as a bird Pokemon would recognize Lugia of someone of great importance, as perhaps a Queen or maybe even at a minor deity level.

Lugia seemed to think for a moment before saying, "I don't think I'm a ruler of anything and my name isn't Lugia."

Pidgey looked confused as she asked, "surely you are the great Lugia, who all bird Pokemon give obeisance to."

"Nope, I'm Giant," Lugia replied, "nice to meet you anyway. Nobody ever seems to want to stay and talk to me for some reason so its nice to finally run into someone that doesn't run away."

"Why would you think your name is Giant?" Pikachu had the courage to ask.

"Since that's what everyone calls me silly," Lugia or Giant replied, "whenever I run into people, they call me Giant and scream and run."

"This doesn't seem to be right," Professor Ivy commented to them, "Lugia should know who she is and she usually tends to avoid people."

"Maybe she has an amnesia or something," Misty suggested.

"Um giant," Professor Ivy asked tentatively, "what's the oldest thing you remember?"

Lugia thought about about it for a moment before saying, "well as far as I remember I'm only a few days old."

That was clearly wrong.

"You should be like several thousand years old," Professor Ivy told her, "there's no way you could be that young."

"Do you even know how to fly?" Pidgey pressed.

"I can't fly, I'm too big for that," Lugia answered as she gestured at her body.

"Yes, you can, you even have wings," Pidgey argued as she pointed at her left one.

"Huh, is that what these are called?" Lugia asked as she spread them out, practically blocking out the skyline behind her as she did so, "well I must say they are rather pretty but they do get in the way sometimes."

"What are we going to do with her Ash?" Pikachu asked him as Lugia played with her wings.

"Well we can't just leave her in this state," His mom insisted, "she doesn't even know who she is, I'm not even sure she even knows how to survive on her own. Whatever must have happened to her must have been pretty bad for her to lose her memory like this."

He thought that for awhile before saying, "I agree."

Lugia then admitted, "I'm hungry."

He blanched at that. At Lugia's size, he was pretty sure that she would be able to eat all of his food and still be hungry.

"I'm not sure if I have enough food for you," He had to admit to her hoping he wasn't being too rude, "you're kind of big."

Lugia frowned before saying, "it seems my size does seem to be a problem. A lot of you seem to be frightened of me, but I promise I'm not all that scary. I suppose I'll just have to make myself smaller then."

She hopped up onto the edge of the cliff, making it shake and shudder for a second as if threatening to collapse before she began to shrink before their very eyes.

Finally she stopped at around 5'6.

"Is that better?" She asked.

"How did you do that?" Jessie asked her in wonder.

Again Lugia appeared puzzled before admitting, "I don't know. Convenient though huh?"

In another minute, Lugia was already eating dinner with them, even though just about everyone was unable to stop staring at her.

She didn't eat anywhere near what her huge version could have, but she did eat quite a bit, acting like she hadn't eaten in days which...she probably hadn't.

He doubted she remembered how to find food for herself.

Now however he had to figure out how to what to do with her in the long term.

Since he couldn't just leave her, the most obvious answer was to catch her.

However that might not be a very good idea. First of all, Lugia was supposed to be important controlling the oceans and simply removing her from that might cause catastrophic problems.

Then there was the fact that it would be taking advantage of her in her time of weakness, while she was defenseless and unaware of what was going on. He was sure that many trainers still wouldn't hesitate at such an opportunity as catching a Pokemon as powerful as Lugia, but he liked to think he wasn't that self-serving.

Of course she probably didn't even know what an attack was, much less know how to battle so at the moment she was essentially useless in that regard anyway.

Besides, at any rate, he doubted that a simple pokeball would be able to catch her anyway.1 He did have a few Great Balls and even 1 Ultra Ball to try and catch her with, but most likely it wouldn't work even if he did trick her into cooperating.

So that left trying to help her out as best as he could without catching her.

The problem then would be that even if she stayed human sized, she'd still likely be recognized and probably taken advantage of.

Perhaps he could come up with a disguise. Fortunately humanlike Pokemon were a lot easier to disguise. If he were to switch her clothes, she could be mistaken for a Togekiss or something.

As he tried to figure out what to do with her, Lugia was still talking to all of his Pokemon, currently seeming to enjoy their company while eating an apple.

Well he thought, like it or not Lugia would be joining their group...at least until her memory came back. When that happened...well there was no telling what could occur.

I actually have been able to catch legendaries with pokeballs in the games so I know it can be done. (That awful moment when you've traveled all the way down to the bottom of some cave for a legendary and all you have is one lousy pokeball to catch it with.) Really difficult and unlikely, but still possible although Ash shouldn't think it likely this considering how legendaries usually aren't owned or caught through conventional means in his experience. However there is a discrepancy between the legendaries in the games and in the show and movies. In the shows and movies legendaries are incredibly strong and powerful, so much so that just an average Pokemon would have almost no hope of beating them, whereas in the games they are usually stronger than average but still beatable with a strong enough Pokemon and a type advantage. However since most legendaries' strength is already well established for Ash, I figured I'd better have them be super powerful like in the anime.

If Ash is however going to have any legendaries (not all of them since that would just be sick and wrong) but maybe a couple, he'd have to have a reason not to be able to use them whenever he needed to beat someone or the story would simply get way too easy and boring. Having Lugia have amnesia I figured was a good option and worked well with the storyline I have planned.

By the way, anyone ever noticed just how messed up the supposed height and weight for Pokemon are in the video games? The sizes they have in the anime work at least. Since they are so messed up, I've simply been deciding upon my own sizes.

Please Review.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Ash soon found that having an amnesiac legendary in his party wasn't always easy.

For example when Lugia accidentally unleashed an Aeroblast at poor Pidgey when she sneezed the next morning.

Fortunately after Pidgey had recovered, a la Nurse Joy, Pidgey wasn't at all bothered by that as she seemed rather honored to have been attacked by someone as great as Lugia.

Professor Ivy was furiously taking notes as she watched Lugia, the scientist in her not allowing such an opportunity to be taken for granted to study a legendary so up close and personal.

"How do you think we should get back her memory?" Misty asked him.

He'd already considered this so he already had an answer for her.

"Maybe try to tell her a few things about her, things that might help her remember something?" Ash suggested.

"Except we don't really know anything about her," Misty pointed out.

"That's not entirely true," He was forced to admit.

He briefly told Misty about the adventures that he'd had with Lugia and being the "chosen one" or in his case the frozen one as he had put it.

Misty however looked concerned as she asked, "what if she causes another storm accidentally or something before she remembers?"

Ash could only shrug his shoulders and say, "well we'll just have to hope she doesn't."

That did not seem to reassure Misty even though she tried to remain positive.

"Well hopefully she can get her memory back fast then," She commented.

He and Misty approached Lugia cautiously and Ash told her, "we were just hoping that we might be able to tell you a few stories about yourself that might help you remember just who you are."

"Well I do like stories," Lugia said happily, "well at least I think I do."

Ash nodded, taking that as permission to proceed and started to tell of the legend of Lugia. He was afraid that it might not be the same in this world, but Professor Ivy told him part of the way in that she'd heard the same basic legend so he took that as a sign that it was correct.

"You help keep peace between the 3 legendary birds Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos and its said that you will appear when all 3 are together," Ash admitted, "you also rule over the sea and can cause major storms, even hurricanes if you are enraged."

"That doesn't sound very nice, creating storms," Lugia commented, "it sounds hardly like something I would want to do. Do I have the ability to make more food? Maybe some nice, tasty fish? I'm hungry again."

"We just finished breakfast," Misty pointed out.

"She probably hadn't eaten in days before we found her, remember?" Ash reminded her, "besides, just be grateful she's at least human sized now."

They gave Lugia some more food before continuing their conversation, but couldn't seem to get anywhere with her.

Now a bit disappointed, Misty suggested, "Maybe your pokedex might have some additional information we can use as well."

"I already checked," Ash admitted, "I got her stats, but her type didn't show up so we didn't get any extra information about her."

"I'll try and tinker with your pokedex and make an entry for her as a new species," Professor Ivy suggested, "Lugia is known about, but no one has been able to get close enough to her really find out if she was her own species. Now it appears we know for certain."

Professor Ivy looked positively gleeful at the moment, eager to make such profound discoveries.

At that moment Lugia admitted over a plate of fish, "Ash, I feel funny."

At once she began to grow again, not having any control over her growing or shrinking.

She grew to her usual height of around 20 feet and several times that in wingspan.

Yet only a few seconds after she had, a voice yelled not that far away, "there she is. The legendary we've been tracking."

There was then a roar in reply.

Suddenly out popped out of the ground the same giant Rhydon they had faced awhile back...only this time she had brought company.

Several Golems also popped up out of the ground alongside her, only these fortunately were regular sized.

The golems were definitely the most Pokemon-like of the ones that he'd seen so far in this world. Their entire torsos were completely covered by basically a ball of rock like a golem usually did. If they did have actual forms underneath he couldn't really see one.

Really all they were were just a rock ball with legs, arms, and a head sticking out.

He was starting to wonder just who had yelled when a woman flew in riding a Fearow.

She dropped down just behind all the Golems and the giant Rhydon.

The woman was wearing a Team Rocket uniform and he recognized her instantly. It was Cassidy, a Team Rocket member he'd battled against occasionally.

Unfortunately as far as he could tell concerning her Pokemon, she was much more formidable than her counterpart had been.

Judging from what he was up against, unless he could think of something quick, he was likely to lose.

Deciding to use what little he did have at his disposal in already knowing her name, he grinned at her and said, "Hello Cassidy."

She seemed unnerved by him knowing her name for a second, but then her arrogance came in the way as she replied, "I see that my reputation proceeds me. Very well then, if you already know who I am you should also know that I'm no person to go up against. Fortunately I'm not here for you, just the legendary, so if you'll just step away from her than I'll leave you be."

While he knew he couldn't defeat Cassidy, he also knew he could never simply let her get Lugia.

He heard Pikachu whisper to Lugia so Cassidy couldn't overhear, "now would be a good time to remember how to use an attack."

That really was his best chance, his Pokemon being no match for Cassidy's but Lugia seemed to be unsure just how to do that, not that he could blame her.

Before he could figure out just what to do, Cassidy seemed to think it was long enough for him to decide as she commanded her Pokemon, "attack!"

The golems instantly popped their limbs into their rock balls and started rolling right into his assembled Pokemon.

Each of them began to go flying like bowling pins, getting knocked out quickly and easily due to being at such a level disadvantage.

The giant Rhydon meanwhile was busy grabbing Lugia and trying to tie her up with a very large rope, while she resisted.

Unfortunately he couldn't think of anything he could really do to stop any of it.

It wasn't long before he soon found himself and Pikachu the only ones still conscious, himself only because he'd been totally forgotten and considered not a threat by the Golem and Pikachu, who was still doggedly trying to dodge her opponents, but she knew she couldn't hold out for too much longer and it hardly mattered since Lugia was already tied up and being dragged over to the cliff face, possibly for her to be picked up somehow by someone.

Cassidy appeared to already be making a phone call to someone to do just that as the Golems decided to simply ignore Pikachu and go over to their master by the cliff.

Pikachu came over to him, clearly tired as she admitted worriedly, "what are we going to do Ash? We can't let her take Lugia like that."

He was about to reply that he had no idea, when suddenly the ground beneath his feet began to tremble.

"It's more Golem!" Pikachu concluded worriedly.

Yet as it continued to tremble he realized just what it was.

"An earthquake!" He yelled.

The earthquake continued to rumble as the golems seemed to be knocked around into each other and Cassidy seemed to be struggling to remain standing as well.

Even the giant Rhydon ended up falling and sitting on an unlucky golem.

Then without warning, the entire cliffside gave way not far from where they were standing.

It collapsed, Lugia, Cassidy and all her Pokemon falling with it as it fell into the sea.

"Lugia!" Pikachu cried, clearly worried for her new found friend.

"She'll be all right," Came a voice behind them.

Never in his life had he seen a human radiate as much power and strength as Cynthia did, as if she was just as tough as her Pokemon.

He'd seen Cynthia before of course in his coma world but he was no less impressed by her here.

Champion Cynthia, who he'd heard so much about as quite possibly the world's greatest trainer, still had on her signature black jacket, her very long blonde hair falling to her ankles as she had a grim look on her face.

He almost forgot what she had even said before Lugia suddenly came up and landed next to them.

"Wow, that was cool," Lugia commented, "all those Pokemon took a drink, but as soon as I fell into the water, I just felt really strong all of a sudden and I could burst those ropes."

He guessed it was perhaps because much of Lugia's strength came from the sea. Once she was in it, she became much more powerful.

Cynthia however scolded as if she knew her, "you really shouldn't mess around like that Lugia. This boy's Pokemon could have gotten hurt. Why didn't you just attack?"

Lugia confessed, "I don't know how to attack."

"She has amnesia and can't remember anything," Ash explained, "we've been trying to help her regain her memory."

If Cynthia was surprised, she certainly didn't show it as she remarked, "well that appears to change things somewhat. I think we'd better get away from here then. Lugia, would you mind flying us away?"

Lugia admitted, "I don't know how to fly."

To her credit, Cynthia did not get frustrated as she suggested, "then I suppose now would be the time to learn."

With some dexterity and skill, Cynthia went over to Lugia and got on her back.

"You'd better come too," She called, "I doubt you'd like to still be here after we leave for the rest of Team Rocket to show up. Fighting them will have to be for another day."

With some trepidation, he put all of his still knocked out Pokemon back into their pokeballs and then got on Lugia behind Cynthia, followed by Pikachu behind him.

The trepidation was because as far as he knew, Lugia did not know how to fly and he would prefer not to fall down off the cliff into the ocean where Cassidy and her Pokemon were.

"Where did Cassidy go?" Pikachu asked.

"I would imagine they have been sent back by now, but they aren't dead in case that is what you were wondering," Cynthia admitted mysteriously.

Lugia was still protesting that she couldn't fly when Cynthia had her spread out her wings and start to flap them.

Finally, following her instructions, Lugia did so before finally with one big push, she launched into the air.

At first she was a bit hesitant as she dropped again a few times before getting the hang of it.

"Amazing!" Lugia said with instant relish, "flying is so much fun and I can really do it!"

"You're a legendary bird Pokemon, of course you can fly and enjoy it," Cynthia argued, "now head over to where those trees are."

Lugia did so as she seemed to relearn flying while in mid-flight, with himself able to forget his fears of falling and simply enjoy the ride.

It really was fun flying, he realized. He'd ridden Pokemon while flying before but there was something about riding Lugia, the sea at their backs, the wind rushing at him.

The company was nice too, he had to admit with Pikachu behind him and Cynthia in front.

From his vantage point, he was looking directly into her long blonde hair which smelled really good of apricots.

As much as he wanted to deny it, he found that he might just have a crush on her, not that he could help that.

Let's face it, Cynthia was just plain awesome all around.

On the ride to their destination, Pikachu interrogated Cynthia.

Evidently it had been her Garchomp that had caused the earthquake, but she'd put her back into her pokeball after Cassidy and her Pokemon had taken a drink into the sea.

Cynthia had shown up here due to the mysterious sightings of a giant legendary Pokemon, which was of course Lugia, and he guessed that Cassidy must have heard the same thing for her to show up around the same time.

"I just want to thank you for coming here and helping out," Ash admitted gratefully, "I don't know what we would have done had you not done so."

"You would have still found a way to beat them," Cynthia said with total confidence in him.

"Well thanks, but I'm hardly a good enough trainer yet," He insisted.

"You clearly underestimate yourself then, Ash," She answered.

The thought occurred to him that he didn't remember telling her his name...although perhaps it was simply because he had forgotten already.

Lugia finally got to the trees that Cynthia had indicated, finding a clearing big enough to land as she landed with a thud.

"That was great, we should do that again," Lugia commented happily as they all got off her.

"Not right now," Cynthia asked of her, "and if you could manage to shrink yourself I'd appreciate it."

"Well I don't really know how to do that either," Lugia began to say as she concentrated.

Much to her surprise, she began to shrink before their eyes.

"You see, you underestimate yourself as well," Cynthia told Lugia.

"We really can't risk you getting full-sized again I'd say," He remarked, "Team Rocket is probably going to be looking for you for awhile."

"I'd recommend that as well," Cynthia answered, "and I'll show you how to disguise yourself later. For now however, I'd like to talk to Ash and Pikachu here."

Lugia nodded before going off into the trees not far away so they could still see her.

"It seems like you already know her," Ash observed.

"We have indeed met before," Cynthia admitted, "and I have personal experience with a legendary myself."

From the way she was talking, he got the feeling Cynthia had a legendary of her own, but looking at the look on her face, she wasn't quite ready to admit that to him.

He could imagine why. He was essentially a total stranger to her.

At any rate, he was already feeling a bit nervous around her, possibly because of his crush and also because of hero worshiping.

"So what will you do with Lugia?" Cynthia asked them.

"I'm not sure," He had to confess, "try and restore her memory hopefully. I mean the problem would be keeping her hidden. Even with a disguise like you mentioned, keeping her outside of a pokeball in public would be dangerous."

Cynthia seemed to think for a moment before saying, "I would have to agree on that front. Currently she isn't really even able to take care of herself and she will need help and protection."

"Maybe you could take her then," Ash suggested, "surely you would be able to do a much better job at that then me."

She was already shaking her head as she told him, "no, I would never want to do that. It appears that for some reason that Lugia has chosen you to be her potential master."

His eyebrows rose as he asked worriedly, "I can't capture Lugia, that would just be wrong and taking advantage of her."

"Catching her now would be taking advantage of her, you would be correct," Cynthia said, "however I do believe that what you are going through right now is being tested. Legendaries are rather different in that in order to catch them they have to be shown that you are worthy of being their trainer. By helping Lugia, I dare say that she just might decide to one day become yours."

"Wouldn't that mess with things though?" Pikachu asked her, "like cause chaos with the sea since Lugia is no longer there?"

"Not really," Cynthia answered, "there are plenty of legendaries, many with various designated areas of influence and power and Lugia is not the only one over the sea. If you took away all or too many of them, it would of course cause problems, but every once in awhile a legendary will find a trainer that they consider good enough to be claimed by. This has been done since the beginning of time and a legendary might even decide to be claimed more than once throughout history."

"I'd hardly consider myself good enough," Ash argued.

Cynthia gave him a grim smile as she told him, "Arceus doesn't seem to think so and neither do I."

He was totally taken by surprise by that.

"You've met Arceus?" He asked her.

"You didn't think you were the only one did you?" Cynthia countered, "let's just say that I've had a similar journey as you."

He nodded, it certainly made sense, such a great and powerful trainer as Cynthia.

It also reassured him, after all Cynthia had clearly turned out okay.

In comparison to her, he really didn't think much of himself in that regard.

"That's actually why I knew exactly who you were as soon as I saw you," She explained, "I confess to not knowing all the details, but Arceus told me enough."

He let out a sigh before admitting, "I just don't know if I'm cut out for it though. Not only do I have to beat the Pokemon league in a year, but also capture every single Pokemon, that's impossible."

Cynthia gave him a hardened look as she asked him, "why then do you think that Arceus would give you an impossible goal? Beating the Pokemon league would be very difficult but as I've already proven not impossible, but of course catching all the Pokemon in the world would as we've already learned to cause far too many problems for that to work."

He thought it over before giving it his best guess, "because it would cause me to recognize my own limitations?"

"No," Cynthia argued, "that was my problem Arceus had to deal with. You, I can tell are a lot more humble. You don't go around catching Pokemon just so that you can simply add them to a collection as trophies and you always take their opinions and whether to stay with you under consideration."

"Well of course I do," He insisted, "why would I not?"

"While an admirable quality," Cynthia replied, "without a bit of a push, you'd never decide to capture the many Pokemon you've already acquired, Pokemon, which while relatively weak right now are going to be needed later on. If you didn't already have a goal in mind to capture as many Pokemon as you could, you'd never get as many as you will no doubt need."

He thought about it, as it did make sense to him, especially concerning the Pokemon that he had that were once human.

Admittedly he always had some reluctance doing so in changing them as well as bringing them with him.

He supposed thinking that he did need to catch all of the Pokemon had helped him decide to turn them into Pokemon and keep them.

Another thought then occurred to him as he asked, "Do you know...um...about my ability?"

Cynthia nodded.

"Can you?" He asked pointedly.

At that Cynthia appeared saddened as she admitted, "I used to.

Judging from her expression, he guessed that she didn't want to talk further about the subject.

"You still have a long journey ahead," Cynthia told him, "and while obviously you won't be able to catch every Pokemon, you'll need as many as you can get. Even if you do manage to persuade Lugia to become yours and get her memory back, you'll need your other Pokemon. There is unfortunately even stronger adversaries than that Team Rocket member or her Pokemon that we faced. I will however provide you with something that I do believe will prove useful...assuming that you can earn it."

"Earn it?" He asked her, "earn it how?"

"By battling me of course," She answered with a smile.

He stepped back as he claimed, "I can't beat you."

"Once again, you're going to have to realize just how strong you really are," Cynthia insisted, "besides I don't expect you to win, just impress me enough to get what I'm offering you."

"What are you even offering?" He asked her.

She held out an odd looking ball.

"This is a self-ball," She explained, "it was designed by Silph Co. primarily for Pokemon wishing to not be owned by a trainer but still have the luxury of going into the pokeball world whenever they wanted. Unfortunately the creation of the ball caused mass protests from people not wanting Pokemon to have the luxury of being able to own themselves. The good thing however is that before it was discontinued, I managed to get a hold of a few of them. Lugia should also be able to use it if she would like."

He thought this over. This did appear to be a good solution, being able to put Lugia into a ball.

The only problem would be in beating Cynthia for it.

"Well all of my Pokemon besides Pikachu are still knocked out and Pikachu is still rather tired," Ash had to admit.

"Don't worry, I can still do it Ash," Pikachu said confidently, not willing to pass up a challenge.

"Are you sure?" Ash asked.

"Definitely," She agreed with a smile.

"I'll use one of my weaker Pokemon," Cynthia suggested.

While a bit nervous he agreed as Cynthia then let out her Pokemon.

At first he couldn't figure out which Pokemon she was, her only real feature were her long black-blue ears.

Fortunately Cynthia told him

"This is Rikki," Cynthia introduced, "she's a Riolu."

Rikky appeared to be around 16 as far as he could tell, her tell tale feature making her a Pokemon was her big and sharp looking teeth.

"So who will I be battling today?" Rikki asked.

"Me," Pikachu argued.

Rikki didn't seem impressed as she commented, "you'd think I could get a better opponent than a Pikachu."

"Appearances can be deceiving," Cynthia said, "this is a very special Pikachu who has been through a lot more than you might have guessed. Besides she has an excellent trainer."

Rikki nodded before taking a fighting stance.

Pikachu lined up opposite her.

He quickly did a mental check of their strengths and weaknesses. Pikachu was faster and more agile, but if Rikki managed to get in a lucky punch and stop her before going at it on her...well then it could be all over.

Then of course there was the fact that Pikachu was probably tired after her battle with the Golem.

When the battle began, he had Pikachu try a thundershock.

Unfortunately Rikki was too quick as she sidestepped the attack and made a beeline for Pikachu.

Pikachu deciding to fight rather than run, attempted a quick attack as she knocked into Rikki.

Rikki was knocked down but got back up quick enough and counterattacked Pikachu, starting to throw punches at her left and right.

"Get out of there Pikachu," Ash commanded Pikachu.

Pikachu seemed to be trying, but Rikki had her on the ropes, landing punch after punch.

Frankly he was amazed Pikachu was even still conscious after all the damage she was taking, yet she still seemed determined.

Then...as if a light bulb came on, Pikachu grinned as her entire body radiated with electricity.

Rikki's next punches only caused her to get zapped, no longer able to penetrate the shield of electricity that Pikachu had formed around her as it continued to build.

Pikachu then released all that electricity at once at Rikki, who was blasted off her feet from the impact.

A second later, she was on the ground, totally unconscious.

He was about to ask just how Pikachu had done that, when Pikachu smiled, a huge smile that seemed light up her entire face.

She didn't look like a Pokemon that had just been in two fierce battles, that was for sure.

"We did it Ash!" Pikachu said happily.

Sh rushed towards him and he was expecting her to give him a hug...and then something else happened that took him completely by surprise and altered his life forever.

Pikachu kissed him.

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